YELL english version
by Roselyne
Summary: Panic in the Dragon Team: a killer is on their track and Trunks receives a phone call before each murder. Now everyone is a victim... and everyone is a suspect... - New chapter: 12! :D
1. First Call

_**Disclaimer**:   
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**Author's note: **

Before finishing the so long waited **chapter 14**, I decided to rewrite the whole story, chapter by chapter, correcting grammar and vocabulary mistakes... I started writing this fic a long time ago, and the change in my writing style would have been too drastic between the previous chapters (the first 13 ones) and the coming fourteen ;-)  
I'll also add new info into those revisited chapters, so... pay close attention ;)

And don't forget the **principal rules to survive this fanfic: **

**D**on't answer the phone   
**D**on't open the door   
**N**ever ever under any circumstances do you ever say _"I'll be right back"_ cause you won't be back.   
**D**on't ask Who's There ?   
_(that's a mortal wish...)   
_

And whatever you do... 

**D**on't

**YELL !**

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre ONE : First Call**

  


**Satan City University. 16h20. **

The end of the week... All students were feeling suddenly in lighter moods, and lot of faces were bearing a large (silly) smile. Goten burst out the Committee Room. Like Trunks, he had skipped the afternoon's classes to prepare the party of this evening, but when the hazard had decided that Trunks would stay at the University Domain to get the calls for young drivers- an student-association that were bringing back home the students too drunk to drive - the young purple hair student had left the meeting at 15h20 to go back to the course... Or so was it what he said... 

Goten was walking in a fast pace towards the exit gate where he and Trunks were supposed to meet. He saw, approaching the gate, that Trunks and Katrina were already there. They couldn't have been faster than him to reach the gate! And they didn't either seem out of breath as after a run... Goten thus suspected that they had both skipped the last course to be together for awhile. He decided that he would tease Trunks a little. 

What a shame that the hazard decided you would be the responsible of young Drivers for tonight..., he started with a large wicked smile. You'll miss the big party. 

No problemo, Trunks retorted, smiling softly, Katrina must meet her grandparents for the week-end, so I won't miss anything if I stay at the domain, watching a movie or two, and waiting for the calls... 

And in fact, the black haired girl added, pitching Trunks' cheek, teasingly, knowing him alone at the domain is a sure fact that my playboy of boyfriend will not meet other girls at some party. Trunks grinned to her. 

It's really too bad, Goten added with a false smile, You had there the occasion to meet the family of your future wife... 

Trunks, with a smile looking more like a murderous grin, sent his elbow in Goten's side. Goten laughed. Trunks and Katrina had been together for around a month, and Trunks didn't want to feel too involved with a girl. Not after Kirsten. It was already amazing that he had stayed with Katrina for so long, but the latter needed two more months to get the Keeping-Trunks' time-record. 

**21h50, Satan University Domain. **

As it was Friday night, and as the party was running on the beach, there were very few lights on the windows of the Domain. Yet, some of them were lightened at the Alpha Point Fraternity house. Trunks was laying down in a sofa in the living room, drowsing in front of a TV where was broadcasted a nth show of the TITANIC movie. 

He sighed... Why the hell the only movie tonight *_had_* to be the only movie in which he had acted ? All the other TV channels were diffusing the Chikyu Song Contest, which Trunks was judging too bad this year. 

He thought back at the irony that had been during the whole directing of the movie: His partner was actually the other Trunks' mate, the one who came once from the future to give a medicine to Goku. His own girlfriend, Kirsten, didn't know there were two versions of Trunks, and during a big misunderstanding, had thought that Trunks was unfaithful to her, and had let him down after a 3-months idyll. Trunks had tried to explain her about the other Trunks from the future, but she didn't believe him. 

_Jack... When this ship docks, I'm getting off with you. _

Trunks thought back to his real relation with his partner, Lynn. They were far from being this legendary couple immortalized on screen. In reality, they were always fighting. Lynn couldn't stand his Don Juan attitude. Ay ! The other Trunks was a drip, for sure ! The first time they had to kiss each other, at the front of the ship, did he get a strange face expression? In any case, she had bitten his lips and they had fought again... And the shooting had been delayed of one week... And Jim Kameron had had a nerve-crisis... 

A scream brought him back to here-and-now : _Iceberg!! Straight ahead! _

*Here it goes... The biiiig nice boat will give a biiiiig kiss to the baaaad iceberg*, Trunks thought with irony. At that moment, the phone rang. Trunks startled. He hadn't expected any phone-call before at least two hours. Who the hell could already be drunk at 22h00 ? He picked up the phone : Young Drivers, how may I help you ? 

The first thing he noticed was that the guy wasn't drunk. The second thing was that he wasn't calling to ask for someone to bring back home somebody drunk. 

//What's your favorite horror movie ?//

*And one more nutcase, one...!*, Trunks thought. He was trying to guess the identity of the person by his voice. So far, no name was popping up in his mind, he would need to make him talk a little bit more... 

Why do you want to know ?. Trunks closed his eyes, the guy was going to talk, he needed to be concentrated on his voice... 

The voice seemed sulky : //Just answer my question...//

Trunks frowned. Ay Shit ! He hadn't manage to identify the man... He went on, joking : is it for an opinion poll, or for an interview ? 

The voice continued ://None of them...// Yet Trunks was sure he had heard a teeth-grinding. //but this fills the conversation. You don't like horror movies ?//

, Trunks said standing up from the sofa and beginning to walk towards the living-room, No, I don't really like horror movies. Come on, I don't watch that shit! 

//Do they scare you ?//, the voice asked, with a playing tone. 

Trunks burst out laughing : Not really ... What's the point they are all the same. Some stupid killer stalking some blonde with big lungs who can't act, when she is running up the steps when she should be going out the front door...It's pathetic !. Trunks suspended his talk. Didn't he just use Lynn's typical expression ? 

*Damn Titanic !*, he thought. 

//As far as I'm concerned, I rather like this type of movie...//, the voice retorted calmly. 

_*Who the fuck is that sick one?* _I'm really happy for you... , Trunks said, a little bit exasperated. Now, will you excuse me, I'd like the Young Drivers phone-line to be free for TRUE calls... 

//You are the one in chore tonight ?//, the voice asked with a tone almost sympathetic. 

Trunks understood he wouldn't win this game that way. An idea flashed through his mind. He would get him by the bluff. He smiled largely. 

Exactly, Goten ! Like you didn't know! Well, have a good drunk! And don't you dare calling me to drive you home !, and he hung up. He laid down on the sofa, considering the phone from the corner of his eyes. If it weren't Goten, the guy would call back to clear himself. Three seconds later, the phone rang again. Trunks picked it up. He got the idea to say a jibe, but changed his mind just before saying something: this one could be a REAL call , after all... 

Young Drivers, may I help you ? 

//You didn't answer my question yet//, the now familiar voice said ; it continued : //and I am NOT Goten.//

Really ?, Trunks said, out of ideas for the moment. 

//Yeah, I'm sure to know what's my name. But you, do you ever know what is *your* name ?//

I do think so..., Trunks replied with a funny tone. 

//Then ?//

Then what ?, Trunks asked, sitting and still smiling. 

//What **is** your name ?//

Why do you want to know what's my name?, Trunks told with a falsely interested voice. 

//Because I wanna know who I am looking at...//. 

Trunks felt an unpleasant shiver moving along his spine. His first reflex was to look to the window. Nice joke!, he finally said with a tone that he wanted to show calm, as he was standing up and slowly walking to the window. You won't bluff me. 

//So why do you walk to the window, hmm ?//

_*Still bluffing*_, Trunks thought, _*Walking to the window was the more logical action to do in this situation *_. He scratched the back of his neck : So you can see me, heh? What am I doing right now ? 

//Do you scratch you neck as you feel the death collar becoming tighter?//, the voice told with a funny but also slightly threatening tone. 

Trunks contracted his fingers on the receiver. He leaned his head against the window and put his free hand on the glass in order to eliminate the room's reflection and to see outside. 

//Naaaah... No need to tire yourself on this, you won't see me... As for me, I can see you perfectly//, the voice said with a voice still sweet but where the feeling of threat was more and more present. 

Okay, very funny. Who's up there?!, Trunks asked with a cold but exasperated voice. 

//It's not important for you to know who I am... As you're going to die//, the voice said with a rough whisper that was no longer hiding the hatred. 

The words hit Trunks in the chest like a heavy mass. For a short moment, he felt cold. Yet he recovered fast: you have plenty of nerves to come here and threat me ! I see you don't know who you're talking to !. The arrogance made-in-Vegeta was back... 

//Ah ? Do you have friends who could help you ?//, the voice asked with an cheerful tone, as if finding the actual situation extremely funny. 

No, I'm alone !, Trunks retorted with a cutting tone. But I can take care of myself! And I'll take personally care to give you a rough time of it !! 

//Liar.//

You think I won't be able to do it alone ?!, Trunks asked, turning away from the window, and yelling at the receiver. 

//No, I don't question your strength... But you lied when you told me none of your saiya-jin friends was here.//

At the name of the race from which he was born, an alarm rang through Trunks' mind. This was perhaps not just a simple silly student joke. He turned to face the window: You know, Goten... I really don't like your humor when you're drunk!

The voice said with the same cold tone : //Stop shouting your friend's name over and over - that's just asking for trouble... Turn on the patio lights... and you'll understand why I called you liar...//

Mechanically, Trunks moved his hand to the interrupter of the garden's light. He was expecting to see Goten and all his friends shouting   
****SURPRIIIIIIIIIISE !!!** **

But instead, when he switched on the light, he saw before the swimming pool, Gohan tied on a chair and gagged. His eyes were closed, as if he was sleeping. 

**GOHAN-SAAAAAAN !!!!**, Trunks yelled. 

Gohan seemed to hear him and raised his head, slowly, as if with difficulty. The next moment, a light from nowhere blinded Trunks while something was hitting the window. Something liquid which momentary masked Trunks's view of the outside. Before he could realize what was that substance, his brain had already analyzed it and came into conclusion. 

Gohan was still sit on the chair, his head resting on his chest. At the level of his diaphragm, a gaping hole was revealing the light behind. What was covering the window was blood... Trunks heard a voice yelling the name of Gohan, not realizing that the sound had come from his own throat. 

//Remember well, Trunks...//, the voice said, this time completely hostile. //There is no hope... There is no place to hide, and no help to hope...//

Trunks was gazing the outside through the blood stains scattered on the window, he couldn't see anything but the red, and he couldn't hear anything but the voice of the phone... 

//You will all die...//

And this was the end of the communication.   


  


**[To be continued...]**

**************************

And here it is for the first chapter ;)

Little Game: Try to guess who is/are the murderer(s) as chapters go... ;)


	2. I Trust You

__

Disclaimer:   
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p

****

YELL  
" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "

****

Chapitre TWO : "I Trust You"

  


****

23h11, Satan University Domain. 

Goten took the bend, leading to the domain. He was a little bit drunk, but had judged that he was able to drive. He had taken with him 4 other students much more drunk, pretending to lighten Trunks' work. 

The first thing they noticed was the revolving lights around the Fraternity house. Goten clenched his teeth and parked suddenly the car. "If they see me driving in that state, I'll get a nice night in jail and my driving license canceled…". 

The others nodded, but wondered what was going on in the domain. They all burst out from the car and began to - try to - walk calmly as if nothing had happened, trying – hard – to hide their staggering steps. 

They noticed unpleasantly the presence of two ambulances. 

Goten moved forward carefully until the police cordon. He noticed two ambulance drivers who were closing a dark pack, containing someone who would never bother anymore of the hospital-bill, as the next 'house' of the person would be the morgue. He gulped with difficulty. Near the second ambulance, Goten noticed a shape curled up in a brown blanket as policemen around it were asking questions. 

One of the cops moved away, and Goten recognized purple hair. *Thanx God, he is alive !*, he sighed with relief as he was passing beyond the police cordon. 

"Hey ! You !" 

A hard hand landed on his shoulder. Goten released himself rapidly from the grasp in a defensive position that the cop identified as a kind of king-fu. "I live here ! Lemme pass !! The guy there is my buddy !". 

He managed to pass besides the cop and rushed near Trunks. The first thing he noticed was the completely frantic look his friend had. He didn't seem to hear what he was told, and his look was empty. 

"Trunks ?" 

Trunks blinked, without much leaving his immobility, but Goten knew Trunks had heard and recognized him. The almost-total lack of reaction in the young man exasperated Goten and he put his hand on Trunks' shoulders to shake him slightly : "Trunks !! What's going on ?!" 

"Do you know him ?", a calm voice asked behind Goten. 

Goten half-turned to the man, his hands still on Trunks' shoulders : "Of course not… I was just walking around ! I saw the lights, and I thought there was a party !" 

He breathed deeply : "Of course I know him ! What a silly question !", he turned totally to the man, while putting a protective arm around Trunks' shoulders : "Who the hell are you ?" 

The man in front of him seemed to be in his last forties, a thin face, brown angular eyes and gray hair. He was wearing along gray raincoat, and had an apparently relax attitude, but each of his movements seemed to have been carefully prepared. 

"Sergeant Hayden, criminal section. Your friend is our main witness in a murder affair." 

Goten turned back to Trunks, with an horrified look on his face: "… a murder ?… Trunks… are you hurt… ?" 

Trunks had again the empty look. Goten's fingers contracted on Trunks' shoulders : **"Trunks !! Are you hurt ?!"**, he almost shouted. 

Trunks lowered his head, and shook it slowly. Goten considered him for awhile, then told with a voice that he wanted reassuring : "I think you'll have to interrogate him later, you can see he's not well." He leant over Trunks : "You need to see a doctor…", he took his cell-phone : "I'm gonna call Gohan…" 

"It's useless…", Trunks whispered with a dull voice, "he's already there…" 

A purely childish surprised expression appeared on Goten's face as he was turning his head from right to left, trying to locate his brother : "where ? I didn't see him when I arrived… Why he's not with you ?" 

" _"Why am I not with him"_ would be a better question I think…", Trunks sighed, looking away. 

Goten watched him with an astonished face. 

"He is … in the other ambulance", Trunks managed to tell, trying to find out how to announce it to Goten. 

"Ah, ok, he's busy with the other hurt guy, right ?", Goten told quite. Then he seemed to think about it : "Hold on, I saw they were tossing a body fit for the mortuary in the other ambulance. What's my brother doing ? He's not a coroner… !" 

"Gohan Son was your brother ?", Hayden asked then. 

Goten frowned : " _"was"_ ? How that, _"was"_ ? Gohan **IS** my brother !", he told with a suspicious tone. 

Hayden took his breath, then announced with an emotionless voice : "Gohan Son, doctor at the Satan City Hospital, is deceased this evening at 22h04." 

"What ?", was all Goten managed to say with an unbelieving voice. 

"I am sorry", Hayden told, even if no expression was shown in his voice. 

Goten turned to Trunks : "What is this… ?!" 

Hayden ignored Goten and talked to Trunks : "You're not in a hood shape to talk tonight… But I count on you to tell me more tomorrow." 

Trunks raised his head, looking exhausted : "I already told you all I knew… I haven't seen who the guy was, I know neither what he used to kill Gohan, nor from where he was calling. I just heard his voice, and **NO**, I didn't recognize his voice, and **YES** I would be able recognize his voice with no problemo !!". He added, more for himself : "I've got the feeling that this voice is gonna haunt my dreams for the rest of my life…" 

Goten was still, mouth open, seeming unable to say a word, apparently needing time to digest the information. 

Hayden shook his head, with a pensive look, then added : "I'll see you tomorrow for more details… The night brings advises, and perhaps will you remember of a detail, even tiny, that could help us to progress." 

He leant over Trunks : "but Trunks… if you're more than a witness – and even if you seem to suffer from his death – I'll discover it soon…". His tone seeming first almost comforting, had become transformed into a tone heavy of threat. 

Goten and Trunks glared at him, mouth open… Trunks couldn't believe he could be suspected. Goten grumbled in Hayden's direction as the sergeant was moving away : " "main witness" or "main suspect" ?" 

Hayden half-turned and slightly smiled : "In such an affair, it sometimes means the same…", he turned away and walked his way. 

Goten had still an arm around Trunks' shoulder and felt he was completely tensed. He turned to him and whispered : "Keep calm… I know you didn't do it…" 

Trunks frowned and turned to him a glare full of questions. 

Goten gulped : "C'mon ! First of all, you're not a match for my brother…" 

Trunks narrowed his eyes. Goten smiled. He had touched a sensitive string. Undoubtedly, the genes of the royal Saiya-jin family were tenacious. He went on : "And also… I know you had no reason to kill my brother. I trust you.", he added with a friendly slap on Trunks' shoulder. 

Trunks almost smiled… 

Almost…   


**************************

__

Okie, and here we are for a second chapter :)

Many thanx for all of you who recognized the story from the **Future Trunks Domain**, I was really happy ^___________^  
*starts crying of joy* :,-)…

Yes, the story continues… By the time this story will here reach the same point than in the original website, chapter 14 will be done :)  
(there are more than 20 chapters planned so the story is waaaaaaaay far from being over :p but you can still try to guess who is/are the murderer(s)... ;)

I'm thinking of something to send to the winners… :)

  



	3. Missing Father

__

Disclaimer:   
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p

****

YELL  
" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "

****

Chapitre THREE : "Missing Father "

****

02h07, Capsule Corporation.   


__

"... And it was during the diffusion of his movie, TITANIC, that the performer of the character Jack Dawson, Trunks Connor, has been witness to the murder of one of his friend after he received an anonymous phone-call...", the TV announcer's calm female voice talked, while on the screen you could see pictures showing two ambulances, the campus and Trunks, wrapped up in a blanket, and brought back to the family car, sustained by Bulma and Goten. 

The announcer appeared on the screen, on the side of the usual anchorman and turned to him a so perfect white-teeth smile that it was probably an artificial one : _"So, can we conclude that the movie was particularly bad ?"_

The next moment, the TV screen was exploding, swept away by a bad-tempered blast. 

The smoke rapidly activated the anti-fire system, and a beam of water poured out in thin water trickles in the room. Trunks had still his arm tense and a furiously mad look in his eyes. 

He slowly lowered his arm as the water soaked his hair and his clothes. He raised his head to the water source, closing his eyes, hoping that that would calm him. He opened his eyes and looked at his hands... 

Suddenly he realized that his hands were covered by blood ! And not only his hands, but his arms, his body, his face, ... He raised his head. The water that was dripping from the anti-fire system wasn't exactly water... He screamed. 

Bulma, first alerted by the explosion sound, had run to Trunks's room. She was reaching the door when she heard him screaming. She threw her whole weight against the door and slammed it against the wall: "Trunks !! What's going on... ?" 

Through the dissipating smoke, she understood the origin of the explosion. He too had watched the TV News. 

She ran to him as his scream was dying in his throat and pressed him against her : "It's ok... It's OK...! I won't let anyone hurt you...!" 

"**Blood**... ! There's blood everywhere !!", Trunks was screaming, his eyes wide-open and gazing in front of him. 

She forced himself to stand up and drew him outside of his room. Outside, she noticed in the corridors raw lights that Trunks' hands were full of blood. 

Alarmed, she released her son's shoulders and grasped his hands, turning them to face the palms, and she understood. 

Trunks had probably mixed up water and blood, and, under pressure, he had plunged his nails in his palms, until they bleed. 

She sighed with relief... For a moment, she had feared that Trunks had become suicidal. 

She thought afterwards that it would have been surprising... Trunks and Gohan knew each others, they belonged to the same specie, both half-breeds...But they weren't exactly buddies. They had met very few times these latest years. Especially since Gohan married Videl. They were meeting once per year for Thanksgiving. Perhaps that they had met several more times at Goten's house, but they were no more as close as when Trunks was a kid. 

Bulma understood then why Gohan had been closer to Trunks in the first years. He knew that in an alternate future, he would have been the mentor of the young Mirai-Trunks, last hope for the human kind. In this future, Gohan wanted to see if his `pupil' would need him. 

And, with the passing time, his own activities had shortened his visits, and after the war against Magin Buh, he had concentrated more on Videl, while Trunks had made of Goten his best buddy. 

*Friendship is one of those temporary thing of this world*, Bulma thought bitterly. *Everything down here is temporary... Even Death...* 

Bulma thought then of little Pan. Videl would probably tell her 4-years-old daughter that her daddy was in a multi-day work-trip. Videl was certainly thinking that Pan was too young to understand the concept of Death, even if she could understand the concept of pain and fights... The more Bulma was thinking about it, the more she was sure that Pan would be able to understand that her daddy was temporary dead... 

She thought back to Goten. The poor boy has been deeply shocked by his brother's death, but he had tried to hold out and didn't break down in front of Trunks in order not to disturb him more… He was a real friend to Trunks, Bulma thought. Videl and Chichi were totally ruined, but behind their sadness, there was hope : the dragon balls would soon recall Gohan back to life. Goku had assured to them that Gohan would soon be back. 

Trunks was also aware of it, Bulma thought. Why then was he so deep under shock ? 

They reached the living room and she helped Trunks to sit. She then left to search for something to drink for him. She wasn't of the type to make her kids drunk, but, knowing Trunks's reactions toward alcohol - he falls asleep - she judged that this should calm him... 

****

"Why are you in this state, as you know he'll soon be back... ?", she asked her son, now calm, the crisis over. 

Trunks was gazing the dancing flames in the chimney, not saying a word. Bulma went on : "it's not the first time that you face the death of one of us...When you were 8 and your father died, slained by Buh, you had reacted less violently than today..." 

Trunks got a short breath. His look became distant, as if lost memories were coming back in the light. 

Faced with his attitude, Bulma understood that he would soon talk. She continued : "Is there something between you and Gohan that I was unaware of ?" 

Trunks spoke with a neutral tone, not casting a glance away from the flames : "It's true... I already faced a lotta deaths... Mine included... But it was always in the middle of a fight or a war. A such moments, even if you try not to think `bout it, you know that there's a probability that one of the fighters was killed... and, we almost expect it... But here..." 

He turned to his mother a painful glare, and she realized at that moment how much he looked like Mirai-Trunks. She always thought that it was no use for them being the same person... More than twins... They rather looked like false twins : Mirai-Trunks was thinner, taller, the skin darker, more introverted, but the piercing gaze; as for Trunks, he was slightly smaller but more well-build, extroverted, slightly arrogant with his friend, but with the innocent look of any teenager who would have grown old in a world where machines didn't oblige you to hide constantly in the dooms of the world. 

Nevertheless, at this very moment, she could see in the depth of Trunks' eyes the same pain, the same despair than in Mirai-Trunks's eyes. Was Gohan's death the key point in the two futures ? 

Trunks continued : "here... this death doesn't make any sense... You don't expect to see one of your friends being executed while no war was announced..." 

*Eight years of peace have soften the reflexes *, Bulma thought; then she got another thought watching Trunks turning his eyes away to the flames. 

*When did this happen ?*, she thought. *When did we all become so numb in the face of death ? We've been too much used to count on the dragon balls... Would Trunks be the only one among us to react like a human ?* 

"I understand...", she whispered to her son. 

She interrupted her train of thoughts, watching the time : 02h47 a.m. !?! 

"Trunks, I think you should try to sleep, now. Later we'll make a war council, and the sergeant Hayden told me he still had to ask you some more questions." 

"Great !", Trunks hissed between his teeth. "So that I'll be again accused to have killed Gohan ? No thanx... !" 

Bulma gasped. **_*That*_** was the problem ! Someone - and probably Hayden himself - had implied that Trunks was the murderer ! 

Now, she could understand the reason of the shock taken by her son : not only he had seen his best friend's brother being slaughtered before his eyes with apparently no reason, but in addition, he was suspected... 

She felt a flash of rage moving through her. If Hayden had been there at this moment, he would have joined Gohan after a few seconds. She sat at Trunks' side and passed a hand in his hair. "I'll have a little discussion with that Hayden... But you've nothing to fear. Soon, Hayden will find a true clue, and don't forget that you have an alibi... " 

"Non admissible", Trunks interrupted her with a neutral tone, "I have no witness to support it, except the killer himself." 

Bulma pressed him against her : "Don't worry... It'll be fine..." 

Trunks snorted : "Really ? The only thing that would make Hayden to suspect me a little bit less would be the killer hitting a second time while I would have a lotta persons around me to testify that it wasn't me !", he bit his lip until blood, noticing the horror of what he had just said... 

Bulma passed a hand on his forehead : it was burning. She pressed Trunks' head against her shoulder. Trunks had grown old fast, and was almost an adult for long, but in time like this, she was finding back her little son... 

"Where is my father ?", he asked, exhausted. 

Bulma moved away some locks of wet purple hair away from his forehead : "I dunno... We didn't manage to reach him, and his cell-phone doesn't seem to work. I guess he forgot again to recharge it... I suppose that he felt that Gohan's ki has disappeared, but I wonder where he is now..." 

Trunks smiled sadly : "don't lure yourself... My father would only have felt ki-disappearance if Goku had been the one killed... Or perhaps Mirai-Trunks", he added with what Bulma thought to be a touch of jealousy in his voice... 

To be continued…

  
_*****************************_

Okie, I think I owe one explanation here why I named Trunks "**Connor**" instead of "**Brief**" like in most fanfics I read.

1/ **Brief** is Trunks' mother's name, not his father, and usually kids receive their name after their fathers (like Gohan **Son**, from Goku **Son** )

2/ Mirai-Trunks came from the **future** to prevent a war against **cyborgs**. Doesn't the whole thing remind you of the story "**Terminator**"? ;) Besides, if you look closely at Trunks' character design, he really looks like **John Connor** [Edward Furlong] in "Terminator 2", and some cyborgs in the DB and DBZ serie looked like the Terminator. **Bulma**, when she wanted to kill Dr Gero ***before*** he ever created the cyborgs, she reminds a lot of **Sarah Connor** in Terminator 2, when she wants to kill Miles Dyson… ;) 

Akira Toriyama obviously (and never hid it) took his inspiration from movies he saw. "Terminator" is part of it. :)

So, if Mirai-Trunks was inspired of John Connor, why not naming it **Trunks Connor**? :)  
Of course, Trunks from the present never traveled in the past, therefore he shouldn't be named "Connor", but it wouldn't be logic to have both Trunks named differently while they are *supposed* to be the same person originally ^^;

And also, I find that "Trunks Connor", it sounds cool :)))))))


	4. Second Call

**_Disclaimer: _**_  
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre FOUR : Second Call**

**08h15 a.m., Gohan's House.**

Videl was trying to make the usual morning gestures : prepare Pan for school, in spite of the sadness that was tearing her heart into pieces. She had at all costs to continue to act like everydays. When Pan would be at school, she would perhaps let her rage and her grief burst, even if she knew that Gohan would be back after a few days. 

The phone rang. 

"Pan !!", Videl yelled from the kitchen. "Pick up the phone ! I'm busy with your lunch !" 

Pan rushed with her tiny feet until the phone and picked it up : "Hello ?" 

She heard a soft and low voice on the other side: _// Hello? //_

She frowned a little bit, but she was also slightly amuzed : "Yes ?" 

_//Who is this?//_, the soft voice told. 

Pan had a slight smile as she was beginning to tap her foot on the floor : "Who are you trying to reach, sir ?" 

There was a silence, then the voice went on : _//What number is this ?//_

Pan leaned on the wall : "What number are you trying to reach ?" 

A new silence, then the voice answered, with an embarassed tone : _//I don't know.//_

Pan rolled her eyes on the ceiling : "I think you have the wrong number." 

The voice was interrogative and still soft :_ //Do I ?//_

Pan muffled a laugh : "It happens. Take it easy." 

And she hang up. 

Videl passed her head by the open door : "What was it, Pan ?" 

Pan walked to her mother, while she was buttoning her blouse : "Naaah, Nothing, just a phone number-mistake." 

At that moment, the phone rang again. Pan sighed loudly : "Okay, I take care of it", and she turned back to the phone, while Videl was bringing her attention back to Pan's lunch. 

"Hello?", Pan said, politely 

She recognized the soft and low voice immediately : _// I'm sorry I guess I dialed the wrong number.//_

"So why'd you dial it again ?", Pan said amused. 

_// To apologize.//_, the voice said with a funny and friendly tone. 

This time, Pan couldn't prevent a light laugh : "You're forgiven. Bye now." 

The voice raised the tone : _// Wait ! Wait ! Don't hang up ! //_

Pan was wondering what was wrong. "What ? " 

The voice was calm again, like after a long run : _// I want to talk to you for a second.//_

Pan raised her eyebrows : "I don't have time, sorree. See-ya." 

She hang up. Just as she was walking back to the kitchen, the phone rang again. "Aah !", she sighed, and turned back to the phone in the John Wayne style. She wanted first to call her mother to ask her to deal with the guy, then she thought that it would be childish, and the last thing she wanted to be considered as, was a kid. She picked up the phone : "Uh..Hi, who is this?" 

And she heard the now familiar voice : _// You tell me. //_

She frowned, but she was beginning to find this little game funny : "Well, I - I have no idea." 

The voice continued, on a repraoch tone : _// Why don't you want to talk to me ? //_

Pan breathed deeply : "Mom always forbids me to talk to strangers..." 

Videl wasn't really listening Pan's words, but she got her attention on the latest sentence. She frowned and walked to the door separating the kitchen from the corridor, still packing some food into thin plastic sheet. 

The voice used a connivance tone : _// Just pretend her that we are not stranger to each other //_

Pan was making her brain working at 200%, then she decided to pretend she knew him : "Trunks, you gave yourself away", she paused, then : "Are you calling from Capsule Corporation ? Cause if you are, Bra is near you ?" 

Videl sighed softly, smiling slightly. She had worried too much. She was almost turned back to the kitchen when she remembered that Trunks had been the only witness of her husband's death. Perhaps he called to talk to her. She turned again to face Pan. 

"Does he want to talk to me ?", she whispered to her daughter. 

"uh un...", Pan shook her head, her attention back to the phone. 

The voice didn't seem to notice Pan's words, and went on : _// Do you like horror movies, Pan? //_

Pan then paused : *I never said my name. So I was right, the guy knows me*, she went on : "I like that thing you're doing with your voice, Trunks, It's funny." 

Videl sighed... It was weird from Trunks to try to amuse the daughter of someone he had seen slaughtered the night before, but perhaps Trunks was trying to make Pan forgetting 'bout her pain... If he knew she wasn't aware of Gohan's death... Well, it wasn't the right moment to explain that to Trunks. Not with Pan around... She would do it when she would be at the Capsule Corporation. She turned back to the kitchen. 

The voice didn't pay attention to Pan's reply yet :_// What's your favorite horror movie, Pan? //_

Pan sighed : "Come on ... You know Mom never let me watch those stuffs..." 

The voice asked then : _// Why not ? Is she too scared ? //_

Pan guffawed : "Oh no ! She needs more than that to be scared. I guessed you knew it, Trunks, I'm so disappointed in you." 

Videl frowned a little. What were they talking about ? Had he told Pan 'bout her father ? No, Pan wouldn't take it so easily. 

But what if she already knew it before he called... Could it be possible that she was so little hurted ???   
*If it was the case*, Videl thought, *it must be her saiya-jin blood...* She wasn't exactely happy to imagine her 4 years old daughter so insensible facing her father's death. Even if that death was just temporary. 

The voice retorted simply to Pan's phrase: _// Maybe because I'm not Trunks. //_

Pan raised her eyebrows : "So who are you ?" 

The voice became more mysterious : _// The question isn't who am I it's *where* am I ... //_

*The weird becomes weirder*, Pan thought : "So where are you ?" 

_// Very close... //_

Pan was beginning to be fed up of this : "Oh yeah, I call your bluff." She paused, "Can you see me now ?" 

She heard _// Uh-huh.//_

Pan got a predator smile : "Really ?", then she put her finger in her nose : "OK, What am I doing huh ?" 

Silence in the phone. She repeated, pulling a long, green, sticky stuff : "Huh ? What am I doing, huh ? Hellooooo... ?" 

As she got no answer, she concluded, rolling a sticky green little ball between two fingers : "Nice try, Trunks. Tell Bra to call me when you'll see her, okay ? Bye now." She threw the green little "ball" on the wall between a picture of her grand-father Mister Satan and the curtain. 

She was about to hang up when she heard the voice now no more friendly and soft, but metallic and threatening : _// If you hang up on me, bitch, you'll die just like your father. Do you want to die Pan ? Your father sure didn't. //_

Pan opened her eyes wide as the reality hit her violently. For a moment that seemed hours to her, she couldn't breathe, or talk. 

Facing her silence, the voice went on : _// What ? They didn't tell you they found his liver in the mailbox next to his spleen and pancreas ?//_

At that moment, Pan managed to take a deep breath while she was moving backwards, and yelled, dropping the receiver as if it was a snake. Videl burst in the corridor as her daughter was running to her. 

**_"Mommeeeeeeeeeee !! He said Daddy is dead !!!!! "_**   


  


**08h19 a.m., Capsule Corporation.**

Trunks hung up the phone as Bulma entered his room. She noticed his drawn features. The poor boy didn't seem to have slept a lot. But his look was calmer than earlier. 

"Who were you trying to reach ?", she asked softly, more to begin a conversation than to really know. 

Trunks looked the floor and told : "I was trying to reach Goten, but his phone doesn't answer..." 

Bulma smiled sadly : "don't worry, you'll see him in the meeting." 

Trunks sighed : "I just hope nothing bad happened to him and his family..." 

Then he stood up and glance through the window at the rising sun, coloring the clouds in pink and gold. "... but you were right..." 

She blinked, trying to remember what she could have told... 

Trunks turned to her a determined look : "It was foolish of me to feel so hurt by Gohan's death. As long as there are dragon balls, we'll get the possibility to bring him back." 

[to be continued... ] 

***************************** 

_And here's the return of the mysterious voice on the phone ;D  
Would Pan be the next victim?  
_

_Was Trunks really trying to reach Goten?_

_Read the continuation (tomorrow, or tuesday, I think it will be posted :) )_   
_As I said in the summary, no one is safe... :D (even the mental health of the readers :pppp *cackles evilly :) * )_

_And don't forget to send your idea about the identity of the murderer(s) as chapters go on ^____~_


	5. I Miss Him

**_Disclaimer: _**_  
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre FIVE : "I Miss Him"**

**08h55, Capsule Corporation.**   


The entrance doorbell rang. Trunks looked at his watch and thought Hayden was a little bit too early. He didn't move, waiting for his mother to open. After some long seconds the bell rang again. Trunks carefully stood up from the bed in order not to awake his little sister, Bra. She was usually so annoying with him... The eternal sister-brother conflict, he thought. But yesterday, seeing his brother so beaten, she has wished to sleep by his side, trying in her way to comfort him. It was useless, but Trunks had appreciated her gesture. His 6 years old sister could be such a spoiled rotten brat, but she could sometimes be so cute... He managed not to wake her up, and walked to the bathroom to pass some water on his face. Even if he was feeling mentally better, he was feeling woolly after the previous night. 

Standing up, he faced his reflexion in the mirror : drawn features, puffy eyes and untidy hair... He hadn't had a more ravaged look during school-exams; nevertheless, he didn't wish to sleep... not yet... The feeling of exhaustion would probably come in the beginning of the afternoon. He left the bathroom with a drawling walk. His long crumpled light-blue tee shirt over his blue jeans was giving the final touch to his sloppy look. 

He thought back to Hayden and considered his situation : it was simple : Someone had killed Gohan, but had decided to phone him so that he would assist the spectacle, while warning him about a sequel. Hayden was suspecting him because it was his job, for sure the usual procedure... 

The bell rang again. Trunks sighed : okay, everyone was probably still sleeping, he would be the one who would open the door... 

He walked with slow steps until the door, but at the last moment, he checked the identity of the visitor with the watching camera. Opening to the killer himself would make no good. 

"Shit !!", he hissed between his teeth when he saw Katrina's face on the screen. He leant on the wall, thinking to his sloppy look. He quickly passed his fingers in his disheveled hair in order to try to untangle it, and tried to smooth his cloth with the palm of his hand. 

He composed a less-zombie-look face and opened the door. 

Katrina had a serious look on her face and her hands in her pockets. Her travelling bag was on the ground and was leaning on her left leg. 

"Hi", she told with a soft and careful voice. "I heard...", she didn't finish her sentence. 

Trunks smiled sadly and moved one step backwards while keeping the door open to let her come in. Katrina came in while Trunks was moving away. "Trunks...". He sat down on the steps of nearby stairs. Katrina sat on his side, letting the door half-open. He thought he was certainly looking weird, as she was seeming to think twice before talking and was hesitating to touch him. 

'I... I didn't know Gohan personally, but...", she began with an hesitating voice, "... from what I've heard 'bout him, he sounded like someone really fine..." 

Trunks was gazing the void straight in front of him, his breathing calm. Katrina saw the muscles of his jaw slightly contracting and knew he was struggling to keep this quiet look. "I came back as soon as I heard the news...", she told, putting a hand on his shoulder, "but... I don't really know what I could do for you...", she added with a trembling voice. "I would really want to help you..." 

Trunks turned slightly his head to her side, blinking several times, still gazing the void : "You know... Gohan... I saw him a lot when I was a kid... He was like a big brother for me...", he interrupted his talk to take a deep breath. Katrina was still, guessing he needed to talk to someone. 

"... and then, we all grew old, and every one's hobbies and activities separated us.", he got a poor laugh : "At that time, it's true that I didn't really care, I was never alone, I had always Goten with me..." 

Katrina smiled softly, increasing slightly the pressure of her hand on his shoulder : "And I guess you two were already getting into all kinds of mischief, right ? ..." 

Trunks smiled softly : "Yeah... I fact... well... *I* was the one who was inventing all the worst silliness to do, and I was always drawing Goten with me...". He got a slight laugh. 

"The poor...", he added before turning to Katrina, "... he had a rough time of it when we were kids. But what a super duo we were both doing... !". Katrina was slightly smiling. Trunks thought that she was trying to imagine herself with them, kids. It was true that she was very often with them in all types of crazy plans since she was going out with Trunks. 

Then, the reality hit Trunks, for he turned away, his voice loosing the funny tone it had taken to become again painful : "... But all this time, I hadn't realized how I was missing Gohan... And I miss him..." 

Katrina felt more that she heard the variation in Trunks's mood and huddled up to him, passing her arms around his waist to comfort him. Trunks put an arm around her shoulders and pressed his cheek against her forehead : "... I really miss him...". 

After a two seconds silence, he added : "even if I know that he'll be back soon, thanks to the dragon balls." 

He felt Katrina slightly stiffening, and realized he had never told her about Shen-ron. *woops...*. It was true he had told himself that he would never talk 'bout this to someone out of the Z-team, even to his girlfriend, except if he was sure that she was the one. He wondered if Katrina could be this person... 

"Sorry to interrupt you...", a calm and monotone voice told. Trunks and Katrina raised their eyes to the door to find Hayden in the doorway, his hands in his gray raincoat. Both suddenly gotten out from his train of thoughts, and facing the symbolization of the veiled accusations he was the target, Trunks got a short breath while his face expression was swinging between terror and hatred, this domain so often explored by fighters. "... but I need to have a discussion with YOU", Hayden added, gazing to Trunks. 

As they were standing up, Hayden considered Katrina and added : "you too..." 

Trunks felt a burst of rage raising against Hayden : "She wasn't there yesterday !". 

Hayden raised an eyebrow to Trunks : "I am the one to judge of it, young man.". 

Trunks clenched his teeth, and realized that if he didn't keep controlling himself, he would blast the man before he could begin the interrogation. 

As Hayden was entering, Trunks noticed two other policemen who wasn't there yesterday. Or were they ? He was so shocked the night before, that had Madonna been there, he wouldn't have noticed. The two other cops were as large and built as bulls, with expressionless faces. Trunks thought for a moment, that they had probably been built in the same "mold". 

As they were all entering, they all heard a car breaking suddenly to stop just at a few meters from the entrance door. The door opened so abruptly that they all believed it was going to be pulled out. But it held well. They all saw Videl, the unique daughter of Mister Satan, bursting out the car while the little Pan was trying to unlock the door on her side. 

Trunks fell that something was wrong, and quickly forced his way through the three cops to reach her. "Videl, what's going o...". At that very moment, she pulled her arm backwards and sent a terrific fist in Trunks's face. Taken off-guard, Trunks was projected backwards over the cops while Videl was preparing to attack again... 

**"BASTAAAARD !!"**, she was yelling while she was bombing Trunks with a series of fits and feet blows. Trunks, taken off-guard, didn't manage to dodge all the blows, and got a break when one of the cops tried to overpower Videl. She projected him against the wall before attacking Trunks again. The other cop wanted to interfere, but Hayden motioned him to remain out of the way. 

Trunks couldn't figure out when was the last time he had to fight that way : Videl was hitting to kill ! 

"Videl ! What are you talking about ?", he managed to ask between two series of blows. This innocent question seemed to increase Videl's anger : "How DARE you ask ?!" She grasped Trunks's hair and quickly lowered his head while she was violently sending her knee in his face. Trunks went backwards, holding his bleeding nose, his eyes closed with the pain, and found him leaning against Hayden who didn't move. Trunks couldn't understand why Videl was hitting him, but two things came in his mind in a flash : First, she was hitting less hard than Lynn as she didn't train a lot since the latest war, second, contrary to Lynn, she was not a Gayan but a mere human, and if he was fighting her full power, he could risk killing her. 

Videl moved one step backwards, a total fury mask on her face : "You phone home to tell my daughter you'd kill her as you killed her father, and I have to take it well ?!!" 

**"What ?"**, Trunks told with an unbelieving voice and wide eyes. The next moment, as if he had received a signal, Hayden's hand came violently on his wrist and passed a handcuff band around it. 

"What ?!!!", Trunks repeated, turning to Hayden, tempting to release himself with his other hand. The next moment, the second cop was hitting him with an electric nightstick. If this didn't put Trunks KO, this was enough to make him lose his concentration for a few seconds that Hayden used to bring his second wrist into the other band : "Trunks Connor, you're under arrest for Gohan Son assassinate." 

"What's happening here ?!!?", Bulma's voice roared while she was bursting outside. She had slept late this night and the bell ring had barely awaked her. But she's been alerted by the noise of fight, and she came out to see Trunks, hands held in his back, handcuffs around his wrists, aimed by two cops while Hayden was maintaining his head lowered by a pressure on the back of his neck. He continued : " Do you wish to give up your right to remain silent? " 

Trunks was trying his best to talk : "Listen... I don't know... what she's talking about..." 

Hayden didn't pay attention and went on : "Do you wish to give up your right to speak to an attorney and have them present during questioning?" 

Bulma came to Hayden : **"YOU DON'T HAVE THE RIGHT TO --"**

"I have perfectly the right to take him away, as now we have a witness.", Hayden told with an expressionless voice behind which Bulma thought to perceive some bad delight. "... a witness ... ?? But...". She was interrupted by Trunks raising his head to Videl who was 10 feet away from him, a both furious and sad look on her face. 

"Why are you doing this ?!", Trunks told her. The cops began to draw him away to the police car. Bulma noticed that the door of a reporter van on the other side of the street opened and a journalist with a cameraman burst out the van. Bulma frowned : those vultures had come since they had known Trunks had been the witness of a crime affair. If they could find some spicy story about the Brief-Connor Family, leader of the Capsule Corporation, and the richest family in town, they would be sure to get all the TV-spectators attention. She noticed the Vulture Team composition, a red-haired woman in her late twenties in a suit, and a black cameraman. Her attention was drawn back to the woman, and she recognized her immediately : Sharon Silver, the anti-Christ of Television journalism. Always searching for the spiciest story to get the attention of the public, one of the worst vultures... Bulma sighed internally : why the hell the only reporter around here, on the lookout for news was this... bitch... ?! 

"Okay, it's rolling", the cameraman told her. She wore then a bright and murderous smile : she would be the one again in the 20:00 TV-news... 

Trunks resisted to the cops, he absolutely wanted to talk to Videl. : "I didn't do anything and you know it !". 

Videl moved some slow steps to Trunks. Her face was expressionless, but her eyes were throwing thunders. She stared a short moment at Trunks before spitting at his face. 

**"HEY !!"**, Bulma yelling, forgetting for a moment the vultures, "what the hell is your problem ?!". The two women were at less than 5 feet away from each other. The cops were ready to interfere, expecting a catfight, but smiling at the idea. Katrina moved one step on aside : "Trunks..." 

Trunks turned to her an intense look : "I didn't do anything. You must believe me, I didn't do anything..." His voice was nearly loaded with tears. Katrina seemed to hesitate to go to him. Hayden appeared between them : "Are you his girlfriend ?" 

Katrina looked at him, with the look of someone emerging from a long nightmare : "err... yeah..." 

Hayden got a slight smile. The smile of a cat who just discovered a mouse driven against a recess. He took out a notebook from the pocket of his coat : "Your name ?" 

Katrina answered mechanically, as if she was still at school : " Katrina Somhence..." 

"Could you tell me where you were last night around 23h00 ?". Katrina frowned with annoyance, but quickly answered : "in the train going to Ginger, to my grand-parent's." 

Hayden smiled with a conceited look. "Yeah... I'll ask you nevertheless not to leave the city in the next days..." 

Katrina was mouth opened, not seeming to believe she was a suspect too. Bulma was watching Hayden with guns instead of her eyes : "I follow you to the Police Station. You won't do what you want with my kid !". Hayden smiled : "but I had no intention to prevent you to come...". 

Trunks was put in the car that soon left the place. 

Bulma was watching the moving away car, still, until the vulture-female reached her : "Mrs Connor, it seems your son has been recognized to be the murderer in this atrocious crime. Do you have any comment to tell ?" 

Bulma turned her gun-eyes to Sharon who was largely smiling, with dollars in her eyes, and then Bulma threw her fist in the vulture's eye, punching her backwards.   


[to be continued... ] 

***************************** 

_And here's the return of Deputy Friendly in the scene ;-)_

_Thanx for the reviews ^___^ I absoluterly loved the one comparing Yell to Fight Club *grins to jdchs* I'm happy when I see that readers'brains are working hard :p  
*lets go a evil cackle :D *_

_Trunks: uh oh.... *starting a retreating movement* she scares me..._

_*Trunks hits someonein his retreating movements, he turns around and sees...*_

_*... Shuten-Douji, Mirai-Trunks, Legolas Greenleaf, Shang Tsung, Kaos-sama, Squall, Hyoga, Kenshin, Kamui, Ashura, and many other characters used in fanfics by the author, trying to dig their way out through the padded-wall with their nails*_


	6. Crying Little Demon

Disclaimer:   
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p

**YELL  
**" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "

**Chapitre SIX: "Crying Little Demon**

**Saturday, 13h11, Central Police Station.**

Perched on a pivoting chair ledge, Jenny Lee, Hayden's partner, leant forward and looked at the screen of the monitor placed on the shelving unit. They were watching the recording for the third time, in attempt to discover a clue they'd have missed. Hayden stretched his arm out to increase the volume. 

« So, if I understand well… At the very moment you were phoning Goten, Pan, Gohan's daughter received a call from you, threatening her ? Admit that the coincidence is a little bit too big. », Hayden's voice was telling, slightly snickering. He wasn't visible on the screen, but on aside the camera. 

On the screen, Trunks, hands attached is his back by handcuffs, didn't seem to find that really funny. He covered the Hayden of the tape with a dark look full of defiance. 

« You told you made a phone call to Goten », Hayden's voice went on. « How then is it possible that Goten never received any phone call ? ». Hayden was using for the filmed archive a polite use of the formal _vous_ and no more the almost scornful use of the familiar _tu_, he was using during more « unofficial » interrogation. 

« I got no answer ! », Trunks lost his temper. 

« Ah… », Hayden told with a dubious tone. 

« Listen… I dunno what I've done to you, but since the beginning if this affair, you're personally angry with me», Trunks told with a steady voice. 

« **You rave** ! », the Hayden of the tape retorted, anxious not to have an harassment report pinned on him. 

Hayden paused the tape-reading, he didn't want to hear more… Jenny Lee got a slight smile. It was a useless precaution as she had already heard twice what was following. She made her chair pivoting to face Hayden : « I think this kid is innocent ». 

« AH, you **_'think'_** he is innocent ? But, look at him ! », he pointed the screen where the still picture of a distrustful Trunks was still on. « He changes the conversation to redirect the accusation on **ME** while passing for a martyr ! ! » 

« You know what I mean », Lee told with a calm voice. « He's right on this point : since the beginning of the investigation, you are only after him, even at the very beginning, when he was only a witness. » 

'So… He managed to persuade with his little angel look that he is as pure as the driven snow ? », Hayden retorted. « But **LOOK AT HIM !!**», he almost yelled. « He's an actor ! He's been paid 20 million $ to perform a victim unfairly accused of theft in_ « Titanic »_. Be sure he knows how to perform a martyr ! ». 

« It's a feeling I have. I don't think this kid is a murderer. He's someone without any problem. A good family, a stable student-- » 

« He slept with half of the girls of the Satan City University », Hayden interrupted her, « So, don't use the word _« stable »_ speaking about this guy ! » 

Lee turned to him a cold and measured look : « Even if those rumors are true, is he then a murderer ? Don Juan and Jack the Ripper, were two different persons, no ? » 

« As you use the great Classics, what do you think of « Dr Jeckhill & Mister Hyde » ? » 

Lee returned to the investigation topic by raising a report : « Goten told he had unplugged the phone during the night, to prevent a joker or a journalist to wake up his mother. » 

« Sure he did ! ! », Hayden shouted, « and he plugs it back only 10 minits after Trunks's « phone call » ?!? Do those young boys think we're retarded ? I tell you this : either Goten protects Trunks because he's his best friend, either he's his accomplice ! » 

He breathed, and before Lee could have told something, he went on : "I'll ask to dismiss Goten's deposition, until we'll have traced Trunks's phone calls !" 

« You're completely nuts, Peter ! », Lee told, shaking her head. 

The door opened suddenly and the Police Chief Edward Davis Traxler appeared, the concerned and strict look. Tall, in his forties, monolithic, he was carefully holding a hot polystyrene-made cup between the fingers of his right hand, and was firmly holding the door handle in his left fist. Hayden noticed the paradox and suspected bad news : Traxler was showing his cool side for the people outside the office, but his firm and decided side for those inside the office… It was stinking ! 

**"You two"**, he began, **"come into my office !"**. 

"That, it's more than an order, believe me", Lee told with an half-smile to Hayden while taking her coat and preceding Hayden outside. She didn't really feel herself into problems, but suspected that her partner's blood pressure had brutally increased. 

Hayden stopped the video tape and followed her outside. He flattened himself against the right wall, just dodging a shouting defendant who was driven, handcuffs around his wrists to a interrogation room. He followed absentmindedly the prisoner with his eyes. 

**"Hey, Hayden !"**, he heard someone shouting not far of him. He brought back his look in front of him and saw Trunks who was given back his belongings, while throwing to him a challenge and hatred gaze. Not far from him, his mother was receiving the coroner's****dossier. Lee was surprised, but turned quickly her look to her partner. 

Hayden almost choked : "What's the... ?" 

**"HAYDEN !!"**, Traxler yelled, "Come here for a minit !!" 

Hayden didn't need much persuading and ran into his chief's office. "What the hell is this ?", he yelled to the black chief, sat behind his desk, in front of a dossier in a brown cheap cardboard folder. Lee was standing a little bit away, waiting in silence for explanation. 

Hayden went on without a break : "My god ! How many murders will you need before realize that the guy you're about to free is a mental sick ? We have a witness, here !! **Shit ! **What the hell are you doing ?!!" 

Traxler puckered the corner of his mouth, hearing the rude tone, but used a cold tone to give explanations : "Your witness... is a 4 years old girl who recognizes here", he told, taping with the tip of his finger the brown cardboard, "... that she used the name of _"Trunks"_ on the phone by bluff. She's not sure it was really Trunks. She could have used any other names... She says she just called the guy _"Trunks" _so that he would betray himself by justifying his true name. " 

"Like Trunks told he did for Goten when he got the first call, right ?", Lee asked. 

**"Exact"**, Hayden answered before Traxler. "Don't you find that surprising ? Twice the same reaction in that group in less than 12 hours ?" 

Traxler gazed again the dossier : "Goten Son declares also that if Trunks had tried to join him, it was normal he didn't get any communication, as he had removed the phone-plug so that no journalist would disturb his mother..." 

"Yes, I know that !", Hayden almost shout. "But aren't we supposed to removed that testimony, according to the fact that Trunks is his best friend ? Honestly, this removing-plug story doesn't sound real..." 

Traxler closed the dossier and crossed his hands over, as to protect it : "Listen to me, Peter. I want the things to be clear : I have here Lee's report. It seems you pursue a little bit too much this youth." 

Hayden threw a dark gaze in Lee's direction. Traxler went on : "if you wanna stay on the affair, you begin by making your job seriously, and by considering Trunks Connor a little bit more as a victim, and a little bit less as an assassin." 

Hayden had to keep himself from yelling : **"What's wrong, heh ? Is it the money or the power of the Brief-Connor family that scares you so much ?!!?!".**

He went out, smashing the door. Traxler, going after him, turned to Lee : "Watch him, so that he won't spread any shits." 

Hayden walked to Trunks and stopped at a few meter from his target to turn his chief : "Look at him carefully", he shouted at Traxler, showing Trunks with a gesture of his hand, "question him, and you'll recognize in him a psychopath ! And his next victim will be without any doubt the little Pan Son !". 

Trunks was gazing at Hayden with an ice-like look while Bulma was walking to him. Traxler tempted to intervene between the two men : "Mister Connor, I --" 

Trunks interrupted him, the firing look, gazing Hayden : "If your subordinate is searching for something to fill his work-days, **Keep him busy !** Make him read again the dossier 'bout Kennedy's assassination !" 

"I understand you well --", Traxler began to reply, before being interrupted by Goten, bursting on Trunks's side and pointing a threatening finger at Hayden : **"**Listen to me, if this fucking bullshit still make my buddy apprehended, **we will sue you !!!"**

Traxler was trying both to calm the situation and not to lose face. The events were embittering, and the diplomatic tone was requested : "Okay--" 

Goten didn't seem to calm down and went on : "We should have already sued you the day of the murder when he threw that veiled accusation against Trunks ! 

Traxler wished everything to be soon over : the young people back home and the calmness back : "You're right --" 

Trunks interrupted him, exasperated : **"OKAY ! CAN I LEAVE THIS PLACE ?!!"**

"I apologize tota – eer... yeah...", almost mumbled Traxler. 

Trunks felt in the hesitating tone of the Chief, that he had won a mark. Apparently, his innocence was at last considered seriously. He answer with an harsh tone : **_"Thank you !"_**

He turned his back with a 'tsk' of scorn directed to Hayden. Perhaps exhilarated by his first victory on the investigator, he added for him : "Son of a bitch !" 

Hayden had forced himself to remain silent, faced to his chief's decision, but there, he emerged rapidly with a threatening tone : "What did you just say ?" 

Trunks felt his heart heavy. Hayden was perhaps diminished, he was still fearsome, and especially, representing the Law. He perhaps committed a mistake by insulting him openly. Goten didn't seem to mind and answered : "You heard it well, fucking bullshit !" 

Trunks almost admired the courage - or the utter thoughtlessness - of his friend. Goten didn't seem to fear anything in order to defend him, and, surprising thing, even with his brother's death and all the evidences against Trunks, he was still defending his buddy. 

Hayden knew that he was ordered - at least, temporary - not to blame those two young people. He wanted to put a "insult to Law-representing during his service" report on them, but he perfectly knew that his report would almost disappear. He contented himself with answering, raging : "Really ?! **Don't act too silly with me, boys !"**

Goten murmured to Trunks's ear : "_You jump, I jump_, right ?" 

Trunks couldn't prevent a poor smile on his face. Not a single day without the Titanic on his way… 

Goten, Trunks and Bulma disappeared in the turnstile leading to the outside of the police station. Hayden realized the childish side of his retort. It had been a long time since the last time he had lost his self-control like that. Lee was watching him calmly, discovering a Hayden far different from the classical Emotionless-Hayden. Hayden thought she was making fun of him and turned to her : "And you... What's your problem, heh ?". He needed to show his authority again on someone after all the previous events. Lee guffawed faced to this mean attempt and went away, back to her office.   
  


Trunks narrowed his eyes, blinded by the sun. He saw that the Son family, Katrina and Bra were there and were waiting for him. He didn't notice any hostility on their face, and knew they weren't suspecting him anymore to be Gohan's murderer. He looked around for his father and didn't find him. He slightly frowned, then noticed that Videl was standing a little bit away from the other ones, and was avoiding his look. Katrina came to him and took his hand : "How do you feel ?" 

"Like someone who's just been accused of his best friend's brother's murder", he answered a little bit coldly. He saw then that Pan was crying. Not far from her, Bra looked a little bit irritated. 

"I'm sorry", Pan told, sobbing, "I didn't mean... I didn't want you to have problems because of me...". She hid her face in her hands, as to hide she was crying. Bra crossed her arms in a Vegeta-ish way and grumbled in her direction : "You Baka ! No one ever told you to think twice before to talk ?". That doubled Pan's cries. 

Trunks walked to her and kneeled down near her, holding her in his arms, and trying to calm her : "Everything's fine now", and then he got the sudden thought : * no, everything is not fine, and you know it ! It's just a beginning...*. He went on nevertheless : "And you know, I acted the same way when I got this man on the phone. I called him "Goten" so that he would say his real name...". 

"It is soooooooo charming", Goten told with a slightly amused tone. 

Trunks smiled slightly, and reported his focus on Pan, wiping the tears on her cheeks : "so, you see ? You don't have to feel responsible... So now, my little demon, you're going to dry those tears, and make me a big smile, ok ?" he added with a warm smile. 

Pan smiled slightly, while trying to swallow her sobs. 

Trunks heard steps screeching in the gravel behind him, and felt a threat on him. He turned and saw Hayden in his back. This one was seeming to calculate him, to judge his state and attitude. For a moment, the two enemies faced each other in a heavy silence. 

Finally, Hayden broke the silence : "My boy, you pull through for this time, but remember well that until further notice, you're still suspect number **1** for me." He turned back and went away to the police station with a determined pace. 

_* it seems*_, Trunks thought, _*that he only wants **ONE **think : to open me up with his nails and to strangle me with my intestines...*_

Bulma walked to Trunks as he was standing up again. They both saw Videl approaching slowly them, not very at ease. She was still looking on aside and mumbled : "I'm sorry... I should have questioned Pan more deeply...". Then, she gazed them with her fierce blue look : "Understand my reaction : when those I loved are attacked, I act first, I think afterwards... !" 

Bulma seemed to need some seconds to swallow her resentment, but understood quickly that it would lead to nothing to maintain war among the team. Trunks had been freed and Videl had apologized, there were no need to look daggers at each other : "I understand, Videl..." - those words seemed to cost her enormously, but she went on - "In a situation like the one we're living now, we need to remain close and to stick together..." 

To be continued...

  
_*****************************_

_Okie, I know there are a lot of references to the movie TITANIC in which Trunks acted, since the beginning of this story, but be sure it's gonna have its importance later on in the story ;-)_

_Sorry for the delay in posting the next chapter.... ^^; Too much work.... ^^;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;_


	7. Sleep Molecule

**_Disclaimer: _**_  
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre SEVEN: Sleep Molecule**

**Saturday, 16h34 - Capsule Corporation**   


" Do you have enemies who could have attacked your son? ", Hayden asked to Goku with a monotonous voice. 

He had come back rather quickly to question the whole team. Bulma was considering his attitude cheeky, but on the other side, as long as the real murderer was not caught, Trunks would be always more or less suspected. She feared that after a long time, this would affect seriously the mental state of her son. She could already perceive some signs of unusual irritability in his behavior. 

Lee had sat beside her partner, and her presence had been a significant factor to decide Bulma to let Hayden enter. She knew that the young woman was rather there to slow down Hayden than for really inquiring. She here, Peter Hayden, relentless inspector as cold as the iceberg which had sunk the Titanic, would have difficulty to exert an abusive authority about a new Trunks arrest. 

A horrible thought crossed Bulma: _*How would she react if they discovered that Hayden had been right since the beginning ? What would she do about Trunks ? She couldn't give him up to the authorities where he would be sentenced to death... Could she take him far from here, to protect him ? What... *_

She shivered, driving back this dark thought. It was the second time that she was loosing her trust in her son. She had the impression to be a puppet whom an external force had fun with. Would she have the force to break these strange links and to think by herself? 

She blinked her eyes to fix a scene which made her instantaneously forget her dark small mental monologue: Goku, the look still a little bit sleepy, rings reaching the medium of the navel, answered while yawning Hayden's question : " Are you kidding ? If we must seek among my enemies, we're not ready to see the end of it soon… ! ". 

Hayden raised an eyebrow, stopping for a moment to take notes on his notebook. Bulma made large eyes towards Goku to stop him to say more about his exploits to Hayden, but he seemed too much in the haze to notice anything. Yamucha didn't seem neither to notice the constant glance of his former girlfriend, as he added: " If you want to have an investigation even more complex than the assassination of President Kennedy, go on this way ! ", he said with a small laughter. 

Hayden frowned : for the past three hours, it was the second time that the name of Kennedy was intervening. Adding to that, the fact that Pan and Trunks have both had the same reflex : to bluff by giving a name to the killer, and the strange coincidence of the disconnected phone… Lee who was looking at him thought that he was going soon to think that **ALL **the family was in the plot... She had to restrain herself in order not to burst laughing. 

Bulma looked turn to turn Yamucha and Goku with large eyes. It was Chichi which restores the situation: " I don't see what is funny!". 

She stared coldly at Yamucha: " It's clear that you never had a child! You don't know what it is to lose a loved one ! ". 

Yamucha bit his lips. Bulma thought that he had understood that he had blunder. But Chichi ignored him to turn to Goku: "And you ! How can you joke on this subject?!". Her glance was brilliant of anger and sorrow. 

Hayden scanned them all with his piercing and suspicious glance. Trunks was about to have an nervous laugh, but thought that it wasn't the good moment. Therefore he turned his beginning laugh into a coughing fit. 

Lee turned his head towards him, and their glance crossed. They also quickly turned their eyes away not to burst of laughing. Trunks coughed worse then ever, and Lee tried to discreetly wipe the tears which had appeared at the corner of its eyes. It was really not the right time, and not the right place... 

Everyone became silent when Chichi started to cry. Hayden, understanding that he wouldn't obtain any info from them for today, rose on his feet to go away. "I'll be back later ", he said with a calm voice. "until that, I will ask someone to place all your phones on taping. That will be easier to know who does all these phone calls", he added, bringing his glance on Trunks. The latter returned him his glance. Bulma rose and accompanied Hayden and Lee back to the exit. 

They walked the corridor, and whereas they were on the point of crossing the door, Hayden turned to Bulma: "but by the way... Where is Trunks' father ? " 

Bulma breathed deeply: " I don't know, he disappears sometimes for several days without giving news... It's not unusual... " 

She tried to take a unconcerned and untouched air, but Hayden guessed that she was a little hurt. He went on: " It must be hard for Trunks to grow with a father so often absent... Goodbye, Madam " And he left, following Lee. 

Bulma activated the closing of the sliding gate and locked it. She didn't want any more Hayden to come inside her propriety unexpectedly, she would equip the other door with the same system very soon, remembering that it was the gate that Hayden had taken to find Trunks this morning. She remained however a moment the hand against the pane of the gate, her head leaning in a pensive attitude. Hayden's words were still resounding in her head. _* It must be hard for Trunks to grow with a father so often absent... *_

No, he was present most of the time, and Trunks could boast to have seen his father much more than Mirai-Trunks. And while Mirai-Trunks had to wait to be seventeen to meet him, and had to fight hard to be finally recognized by his father, Trunks had known his father since his childhood and had received from him both consideration and a warrior's training. 

Yes, Vegeta and Trunks were close... Hayden was wrong... Trunks could not be the murderer of Gohan. 

After one moment, Bulma realized what she was doing and came back to the meeting room. 

When they saw her coming back alone, the members of the team knew that Hayden was temporarily away. They could from now on start to speak seriously. 

Krilin took out a file from a case and explained: " I tried to note all the enemies we met in the past... It was hard, and Yamucha helped me on this point, and among these, I tried to find those which could eventually have a reason to kill Gohan. Here we go." 

He took his breathing. Katrina guessed that there was it was a hell of a list. 

"Then, there is Raditz, Nappa, Broly... ", he stopped in front of the expression of some of the people : "Do not laugh! I know that they died, but it is possible that somebody has resurrected them in a way or another." They thought all of Doctor Gaiden. " I go on ", Krilin added: " Cell, Freezer, the guinyutokusentai, the super namek, Garlic and his son, Magin Buh, Babidi... " 

With the passing the enumeration of names, Bulma noticed that her son was relaxing. Finally, people were paying attention on someone else than him. Something surprised her : Had Katrina felt the same thing ? Anyway, she took Trunks' hand and tightened it. 

Bulma began to consider Katrina with more attention. Only one girl had appeared to be important for Trunks: Kirsten. But never had she taken part in some meeting of the team. Katrina seemed, as for her, at ease, although still a little bit lost. But it was like this that Videl had once entered the group when Gohan was a teenager. It is in the hard times that each one can see whether his partner will be able to hold out. Bulma smiled slightly while trying to imagine Katrina as a her daughter-in-law. 

"... That makes a hell of a list... ", Krilin concluded. 

What did the killer tell you exactly? ", Goku asked Trunks. Katrina thought that Goku seemed to take the death of his son rather well, but she supposed that it was because of the existence of the crystal balls about which one of the team had told her. 

Trunks took a deep breathing, his look became far, and the anxious and sad expression which had left him for one moment returned on his face. 

" He said... ", he closed his eyes to remind the fateful sentence, " _There's no hope... There is no place where to hide, and no to help to hope... You will all die... _" 

His voice seemed to resound in the silence of the room. Goku crossed Bulma's glance of Bulma, then Krilin's, and finally Yamucha's, and they knew that they all had just the same thought. 

" It can't be... ", Bulma murmured with a pale face. 

"What's the problem ? ", Chichi asked, a little bit calmed down. 

"The word _'**HOPE**' _is used twice ", Goku said. After one moment, he continued: " That reminds me what Mirai-Trunks had written on his chronoporting. " 

" This machine represented for him the last hope of the whole humanity in the future ", Yamucha specified for those who were not present at that time of their history. " And he had engraved the word " hope " on its wall before travelling in time." 

" I wonder... ", Goku said, "... if it couldn't be someone wanting to take a revenge on Trunks... I mean, on Mirai-Trunks... ". 

" And who would have attacked Trunks thinking he was the other one, right ? ", Krilin told, diving again in his files. 

" I hope that it is not Mirai-Trunks himself ", Yamucha murmured. Bulma was about to burst his eyes : " Mirai-Trunks wouldn't have any reason to kill Gohan! ", she retorted curtly. And then, an unpleasant thought returned: if Hayden were right about Trunks, and that this one, by revenge, was achieving these murders and redirecting the tracks on Mirai-Trunks? 

She shook her head vigorously. Trunks imperceptibly turned the head towards her, and threw to her - through purple brand - a dark glance. 

" Why you do not resurrect simply Gohan to ask him? ", #18 suggested, which until then, had remained quiet. "It is true, you know... It would be simpler... " 

" No ", Trunks said, his head still lowered and curled up, elbows on his knees, eyes glaring the ground. " I don't think it's a good idea right now... " 

" Why?! ", Videl burst. 

"The killer implied that he was going to strike again ", Trunks whistled between his teeth without raising the head "The phone call your daughter received is the proof!" 

" But... ", Videl leaped of her chair, her good resolutions relating to Trunks falling suddenly. Trunks stopped her before she could continue: "The crystal balls are inactive during one year after their use. If we resurrect Gohan and that the killer strikes again, the following victims will have to wait one year before returning. As long as we have only one loss, it is better to wait! And to keep the dragon balls as last asset! " 

Videl raised the tone: " Gohan could say to us who killed him!! " Trunks raised the head towards her, the exasperated glance. He was about to report when his grandfather entered the scene, and saved his situation: " I think that Trunks is right ", he says with a hoarse voice due to the cigarettes he was smoking one after the other, the autopsy report under his arm. He indicated it with his finger: "According to the autopsy report, Gohan was doped some time before its death " 

" Doped?! ", was the word spouting out several throats. 

Dr. Brief agreed. He quickly scanned the notes which he had taken: " It would be a new molecule, unknown factor of the police-services... And I must say that even me, I didn't know about its existence ". The team was suddenly quiet, awaiting additional information. 

" It's the presence of this foreign molecule which drew the attention of the medical examiner. He isolated it for me, and I carried out the tests... They are surprising...! ". The whole team was litterally drinking the doctor's words. 

" According to my test, if this molecule was suddenly found in my body, your body Bulma, in yours Yamucha, or in any human, it would not have any effect. I observed the same phenomenon with the animals ". He coughed and went on : " As I had Goku under the hand, I decided to make some tests on him " 

Chichi had to retain herself not to howl. Brief made her a reassuring smile: "I had diluted the product to the 1/100th, in order to be sure... ". He made a head sign to Goku, " How you feel, son? ". 

Goku choked a yawn: " exhausted a little, but apart that, everything's fine ! " Brief agreed: " Here are thus the effects of this molecule. As surprising as it can appear, it only acts on the Saiya-jin metabolism." He was silent for a moment to leave everyone the time to digest the first information. 

"But how...?", Katrina asked, the anxious look, tightening convulsively Trunks' hand. 

Brief began again: " It seems that it is the Saiyan DNA which is the problem. As long as it doesn't meet the "key" which activates it, this molecule is inoffensive. And this key… is in the Saiyans' DNA. It is a saiyan DNA sequence which puts this molecule, that I'll call for the moment _"sleep-molecule"_, in its active form, and we obtain... ", he again showed Goku with a sign of head, " a powerful sleeping pill... " 

Trunks reacted abruptly: " Could that be the reason why I didn't feel Gohan's ki while he was still alive ?! ". 

Brief agreed: " It is exact, my boy. When I tested this diluted solution on Goku, he felt directly asleep, and during a few seconds." 

Goku interrupted him: " Eer... I was already worn out from the day before... " 

Brief smiles: " Perhaps, but that finished you" 

He went on with a more serious tone: " To return to Gohan's case, he had such an important amount of this product in his blood, that even if the killer had not fired on him, he would have died anyway... ". 

Videl caught up Chichi who had just passed out. Brief went on : "This molecule does not act like arsenic, for example, it's eliminated naturally by the body, assuming that the body did not receive too much of it at the same time... As for the crime weapon... ". He paused, for nobody was listening to him, half of the team was making air to Chichi, laying on the ground. 

"the crime _weapon _? ", Trunks asked, frowning. If there were a word which was not expected, it was that word. "Gohan had been killed by a blast, not by a weapon." 

" I know what you think, my boy, but sorry, Gohan hasn't been killed by a traditional blast... ", Brief said while coughing. 

He took a chalk and moved towards the blackboard while Chichi was returning back to consciousness. He drew a perfect circle while Videl and Krilin were helping Chichi to sit down " This ", he said by closing the circle, " is the shape of the wound which is on Gohan's body. Notice the perfect circular form. This is Art, ladies and gentlemen… ", he declared. " And it is totally unnatural ", he hastened to add in order to avoid a possible rotted flying tomatoes formation. 

" While a true blast... ", he plated his hand against the blackboard, the fingers slightly bent, as if he was about to throw a blast to increase the room space, and started to pass the chalk around his hand and fingers, " has rather this shape". He moved away to let everyone see the very vaguely circular form. 

"A blast causes this type of form at the entry, but bursts everything at the exit, a true butchery... While in the case of Gohan, it is the same form at the entry as at the exit. True computer-assisted surgery... ", he stopped, seeing Chichi collapsing again on the ground. 

He began again calmly while half of the team was rushing to pick up Chichi: " This, and the Sleep-Molecule, lead me to think that it is probably a simple human who fired... " 

"Except if he used all these subterfuges to scramble the tracks ", Goten added. 

Trunks then uttered a raucous howl while raising from his seat. Katrina leaped backwards and fell from her seat. Trunks passed a hand in his hair wet with sweat, and told " excuse me, guys... But with all this mess, we'll never be able to find the solution! ". He stroke a fist blow to his seat which started to whirl three times on itself. Silence was reigning in the room. 

Goku was the one who broke it with a calm voice: " I will seek the crystal balls to resurrect Gohan ". Trunks closed the eyes, taken by a light giddiness and tried to keep calm while answering in a tired breath: " It is not a good idea, damn it ! If we resurrect Gohan, okay, we'll have one more fighter… okay… But what will happen if we discover who is the murderer after… I dunno… Five deaths, huh ?" He stopped to take again his breath and to open his eyes: " There will be 5 deads ! 5 fighters who won't be able to help the survivors before one year!! There will always be the time to resurrect them when we'll know with precision against ***who*** we fight !", he almost shouted. 

Silence reigned again in the part. Silence broken by Goten who seemed dived in full reflection, fists brought back in front of his face in a ball-shape, as if he was praying. He was biting his nails, thing which was VERY rare to him: " I only hope that it is not one of us, that would be the roof! ". 

" Why do you say that? ", Trunks howled. 

Goten didn't answer, but continued to bite his nails, a pensive and anxious look on his face. Then he seemed to emerge with an idea: " We can still resurrect Gohan to ask him who is the murderer. That would save us time... " 

Katrina spoke at this time: "Don't believe that I defend Trunks' ideas because he is my boyfriend, but I think 'bout something... ", she raised her head and tried to look them in their eyes, but she seemed as at ease as a fish out of its aquarium: " As Gohan-san was doped, it is possible that he didn't see the murderer at all... I believe that Trunks is right... It is better to wait... ". 

After a moment of silence, she went on: " We can always try to discover where Gohan-san spent his afternoon and his evening... Perhaps that a witness will be able to give us useful information... " 

A silence of reflection came in the room, silence broken by Yamucha: " This seems to be an excellent idea to me! Katrina, Congratulation! At least somebody who has her head on her shoulders! ", he said with a smile. 

Much to Trunks' amazement, Katrina seemed surprised, then reddened and diverted her glance, a confused air on her face. Trunks frowned : He wasn't used to see her shy and reddening with the least compliment. _What's wrong with her now?_

Bulma sat back in her seat and sighed: " I also believe that Trunks is right... In any case, the guy of the FBI will come soon to put all the phones of the team on listening. Everybody, get back to your house to be there when they'll arrive, we'll continue this discussion later " 

Whereas some already rose, she went on: " And I ask you... ", and her glance was directed particularly towards Goku and Yamucha, "... not to report all the exploits of your youth on the phone! We perhaps eliminated the enemies of the Earth, but at the eyes of the Law, we are not less than assassins! " 

Krilin retorted : " And the self-defense, what do you make of it? " 

Bulma sighed: " It's not my fault if the law is badly made... ". 

[to be continued... ] 

***************************** 

_Soooooooorryyyyyy for the time it took to post chapter seven, but I was away from computer (afc) for a long time, plus I had to review totally the chapter, written a few years ago, and I discovered that there were tons of... er.. plenty of mistakes, so I had to correct everything ^^;  
(it(s 02:44 am and I finally finished :p )_

_There might still be mistaes, but... well... my english is terrible :p_

_Tell me what you thought of this chapter, new clues were raised, you might eventually gather new ideas about who *could* be the murderer(s) ;-)  
I read all your reviews, some of you have good ideas :p I don't mean that the solution is among the review yet, but the suggestions I read there, seem logical and it's the most important thing ^__^ _

_Read you sooooooooooon :p_

_::Roselyne::_


	8. Third Call

**_Disclaimer: _**_  
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre EIGHT: Third Call**

**Saturday Evening, 18:47 Capsule Corporation**   


Two hours thirty later, an impeccable white and blue van parked in the private alley of the Connors, behind Trunks' car. It looked like vehicle of the telephone services, and it was in fact the case, even if the words Satan City Police were written on the side in fine discrete fonts.   


Almost at the same time, the same kind of scenario was happening in the property of the Sons. Two technicians rang the bell, excused themselves to have taken so long to come, and asked ChiChi if she didn't mind to sign the form that one of them presented to her, fixed on a small plank. She scanned it quickly, and saw that it was authorizing them to place a phone tapping and numbers-tracing system on her phone, as well as the authorization to use these phone-tappings in Court. 

At the Capsule Corporation, Bulma scribbled her signature on the bottom of the pages. 

"This searching-system, is it really effective?", Chichi asked. It seemed significant to her to say something: once the form signed, the technicians had kept silence, and this silence was oppressive for Chichi. 

"Yeah", one of them answered. And it was all. 

At the Capsule Corporation, Bulma was more lucky, for one of the technicians began to explain the process while dismounting the phone receiver: " We can trace back a call up to his point of origin, and everywhere in the world. Forget about old movies where you had to keep the person at least 58 seconds online to locate him. As long as nobody hangs up here... ", he agitated a receiver which was looking very science-fiction suddenly, "... we can trace him up to the point of call. Of course, most of the time, the call is made from a phone box in a public place... ", he hastened to add. 

"You have another station on the floor? ", asked his partner. 

"Yeah... four others", Trunks answered with the more and more clear feeling to be making a nightmare : forgotten the time when everything was settled with burning blasts or raging Kamehamehas... Now, everything was done legally. He began to regret the war-time. 

"They are separate lines?", the second technician inquired. 

"No. We only have one", Bulma answered, while thinking that, considering the numerous calls of girls in tears for Trunks, she would soon install a second line only for him. 

"Where you will place the recorder?", Trunks asked. 

"Probably in the cellar ", the technician answered with an absent expression while connecting the wires of the ripped-open receiver in a small box bristled with spring-contactors. He had in his voice a "do-you-mind-to-let-us-make-our-job ?" tone. 

Trunks took his mother's arm and lead her away.   


***********************************   


**Saturday evening, 20h22, Son House.**   
  


Chichi was away and preparing a strong coffee. The events of these latest two days had tried her patience, and she had a presentiment that it was only the beginning. The technicians had finally finished connecting all the listening-hardware on her telephone. 

They had first been disgusted, but apparently not very surprised to discover that behind the state-of-the-art phone hardware of the Son, was hidden in the West City telephone exchange, the good old archaic rotary dial system. 

"My God ! You've got to see it to believe it !", the technician named Rowin told, with a voice-tone suggesting that there was nothing better to wait from such dump of a place. 

His co-worker, Kyle, had gone out with a heavy step to seek in the van the necessary equipment to put the phone of their customers to the level of the hardware used by the police. Rowin had rolled his eyes and had looked at Chichi as if the latter ought to informed them that, about phones, she was still in the pioneers-time. 

"All the phones of the city function like that", Chichi had explained curtly. She was feeling in her stomach a wonderful acidity-crisis. 

***********************************   


**Saturday evening, 20h23, Capsule Corporation.**   
  


Bulma was sitting in front at the table of the living-room, in front of her fourth coffee cup. She was gently massing her temples with the top of her fingers, as if she was feeling the coming of a particularly painful migraine. 

* It's probably already what happens to her *, Trunks thought. He glanced the technicians who were coming down from the first floor, followed by his grand-father. Two agents of the FBI had come to ask them questions. Especially to him. And they were preparing to leave, gathering their files. 

"It is good", one of the technician launched happily. "The system is placed and should be operational." Trunks wondered whether they would be so merry if they had to place such a listening system on the phone of one their relatives in similar circumstances. 

"And now ?", he asked, more to fill the conversation. The technician close to him answered him with a smile: "it is simple... we wait. Nothing more... We will just make some tests to see whether the system functions well, and --" 

He was interrupted by the ringing of the phone. Everyone looked at the apparatus, and Trunks felt an artery starting to triple rate in his neck. A bubble of burning acidity, rose slowly from his stomach in his chest and gave him the impression to extend its pseudopodes until the bottom of his throat. 

"Excellent !", the second technician, Jo, exclaimed, " we won't even need to make a checking-call ". 

Trunks felt suddenly the unpleasant sensation to be locked up in an frozen-air pocket, which moved slowly with him as he moved towards the phone. On its right, was a gadget, kind of rubi-cubic, with luminous bulbs on the side. One of them was flickering, in synchronization with the ringing of the telephone. 

Jo was kneeling close to the chimney, busy to tidy up his tools in a black trunk which, with its large chrome closings, was looking like a building workman's hypertrophied luck tin. The other technician, Daniel was resting against the picture window leading to one of the gardens and was crunching an apple, stopping from time to time to examine his work with the critical eye of an artist in the pangs of creation. 

"You should take the circuit-controller ", he said to Jo, "if we need to deparasite, let's do it right now. It will avoid us to come back." 

Trunks frowned. Daniel was speaking as if the Capsule Corporation were a field of leprous. 

"Good idea", Jo answered happily. Trunks wondered, irritated, if he was able to feel something else than a perpetual idiotic joy, while observing Jo taking an object with a handle like that of a gun in the giant lunch tin. 

In the expectancy, the two technicians were just appearing slightly interested. The two FBI agents, Werner and Rolland were arranging their notebook, rectifying the impeccable fold of their trousers and confirming the impression that Trunks had made about them at their arrival: those men were more looking like legal advisers or tax inspectors than clue-searchers. They didn't even seem to realize that the telephone was ringing. 

* hey, guys, what happens to you? *, Trunks got the sudden desire to howl. * Why the hell did you set up all this hardware, if it is all the effect that it has on you?* 

Of course the probability that the murderer was the first person to call the Connors five minutes after the installation of the listening-system was too negligible so that somebody could think about it seriously. Except that Trunks was feeling that it was him. An unpleasant vibration in the back of his neck certified it to him. 

Jo was watching him, now, wondering why Trunks was not picking up the phone : " Uuh… I believe that we're going to leave, Mrs Conno... " Werner began, before Trunks stopped him: "Not, that's okay ". 

He turned half to them, with a weak smile: " I won't start trembling each time the phone rings...! ", and he finally picked it up. 

_//Hi Trunks//_, the voice which he knew too well said. 

Trunks felt his breathing accelerating, and Bulma understood who was on the phone by discovering the paleness on his face : " It's him... ", she murmured in a breath. 

**"What you want, son of a bitch ?! Huh ?!! What do you want, at the end ?!! "**, Trunks howled to the receiver. 

Jo started; Daniel petrified himself at the very moment he was going again to crunch in his apple. The two federal agents abruptly turned their head in Trunks' direction. Understanding who was on the phone, thy exchanged a glance where you could read:_ and now, what the hell are we supposed to do?_

_//Keep cool, Trunks//_, the voice told with a funny note,_ //it's useless to have a pee in your trousers//_

The two technicians consulted each other with a low voice and Daniel rushed out to the van, always holding his apple with one hand. Jo ran to the staircase leading to the cellar to check that the tape recorder had engaged well with the sound of the voice. 

The impassive Effe Bee Hai dispensers of justice were standing in the medium of the living-room, their eyes round. Bulma believed that they were about to held in each other's arm, like children lost in wood. 

**"What do you want?!"**, Trunks repeated with a firm and charged with a deaf hatred voice. 

_//Me ? Simply to tell you that it's over, man//_, the voice answered. _//I finally got my revenge on Gohan. I just call to put your mind in rest//_, the voice added with a friendly tone. 

**"You tell me bullshit, yes!! "**, Trunks howled furiously. The two agents of the FBI started as if someone has pinched their buttocks. 

_//C'mon, Trunks, it's not very nice all that //_, the voice told with an offended and sulky tone. _//You thought that I wanted to harm you ? No... The only one that I wanted to see laying down, the internal organs spread in front of him and blood repainting the walls was Gohan //_. 

_* He knows *_, Trunks thought suddenly. _* He knows that they listen. And he knows how they think. He will play the old and single revenge so that their attention will be slackened. And when their protection will weaken, he will come back, knocking on the door…*_

**"It's a damn lie ! I know it! "**, Trunks told with a dry and shingling tone, "Why would you have called Pan, then? Which use, as you had already killed Gohan?!!". 

_//It is not important... Perhaps the desire have fun of the fear of people one last time before leaving the scene... //_, the voice said, very calm. _//But that does not have any importance anymore. I will not keep you any longer. I'll just you repeat it: It is over//_. 

And it was the end of the communication. 

[to be continued... ] 

***************************** 

_Do you believe him? Do you? Do you? Do you? Do you? ;-)_

_Oh, well, stay tuned to the next episod :)  
I'm just warning you, it will be a little bit gore, so, prepare the vomiting bags :D_

_thanx jdchs for your review on the previous chapter :,-)  
I was wondering if someone was still reading this story... (waaaaaaarh :,(........ )  
interesting analysis ;-)_


	9. Lost Trace

**_Disclaimer: _**_  
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre NINE : Lost Trace**

That night Trunks got a nightmare. He woke up almost in tears, as a young kid surprised by a thunder.   
He was with Mirai-Trunks in that nightmare, and Mirai-Trunks was almost all the time standing and talking behind him, as if he was just his shadow. 

They were both driving in a black Honda Prelude. Mirai-Trunks has his hair mid-long and gathered in a pony-tail; he was also wearing his classical gray jeans, black tanktop and blue jacket. He had his hands calmly put on the wheel and was whistling happily, following the tunes of a music that seemed familiar to Trunks, but that, for an unknown reason, he couldn't place. From the passenger's seat, Trunks looked over his shoulder, and saw Gohan, sitting behind Mirai-Trunks and smiling to him. 

"It has been a long time, heh Trunks?", Gohan said with a happy grin on his face. The three of them were looking like three old comrades, going to some afternoon party. "I thought you were dead...", Trunks said flatly, in this weird out-of-place situation. 

"Yes, I know", was the only answer Gohan gave. 

_*Yes you know I thought you were dead? or Yes you are dead?*_, Trunks wondered, but before he could ask that to Gohan, Mirai-Trunks started "There's a place I'd like to show you". His tone was suddenly serious. Trunks forgot about his question to Gohan. 

After a few minutes - or what seemed to Trunks as a few minutes, but in dreams the time can behave really strangely - Mirai-Trunks parked the car in the main alley of the Capsule Corporation. Trunks came out the car and turned a calm gaze to his future counterpart, "I know this place, this is my house", he said with an almost condescending tone. 

"You're all wrong", Mirai-Trunks replied in an amused tone. "No one has been living here for years", he went on, "the son of the former proprietor went nuts a few years ago and killed everybody before committing suicide". 

After the surprise and the disgust towards Mirai-Trunks' bad humor, Trunks wondered _*by the way, which year are we?* _

Mirai-Trunks leant on the car, his elbow on the roof and stared right into Trunks' eyes. "Some rumors said the guy had been helped by his father. It's perhaps just an urban legend", he added, raising an eyebrow, "but both had that killing tendency deep inside of them. A little observation of the Saiya-jins genes could have foretell this and prevent all this blood bath. Don't you think, brother?", Mirai-Trunks asked with a wicked smile. 

Trunks frowned to him. "Am I supposed to find that funny?". It seemed somehow important to show to Mirai-Trunks that he was not afraid of him. Very important, because he had reached a degree of terror he couldn't remember of. 

Mirai-Trunks simply showed the house with a movement of his chin while closing the door of the car. Trunks started walking like in a trance towards the main door, as if he was not controlling his own decision. The daylight seemed painfully blinding, and he had the feeling that everything was in slow motion. He turned a moment and realized that Gohan was staying in the car. 

Gohan's gaze was strange, he thought. His face was expressionless and the look in his eyes was empty. He was also strangely surrounded by shadows, though the inside of the car couldn't be as dark, especially around Gohan only... He turned back to the house, and as he was reaching the door, Mirai-Trunks' hand passed from behind him, over his shoulder, and moved a magnetic card in front of his face. 

No, not simply "moved", otherwise Trunks could have replied or refused the card, or even push it away, to show his future counterpart that he was not afraid of him. No, here, it was as if the hand had initially planned to smash the card into his face, and all Trunks could do was to grab it in order to save his nose. 

Trunks passed the card into the device on the side of the door, and after a few seconds, the unpleasant buzz was heard, meaning that the magnetic lock was removed for a few seconds. Trunks put his hand on the glass to open the door, but as soon as he touched it, the glass seemed to deform as if it was melting, then the door shattered in tiny pieces of metal and glass that fell on the ground in slow motion. 

Trunks was staring at this process with wide eyes. Mirai-Trunks came really close to him. Trunks could almost feel his breath in his ear as he was talking softly, "Man, you keep destroying everything you touch, heh?". 

Trunks entered the corridor. 

He didn't want to enter, actually. He wanted to stay outside and talk with Mirai-Trunks. No, he rather wanted to ask him why he was leading him through all this; why he was trying to terrorize him; what he had against him... 

... because entering the house was even more frightening than having Mirai-Trunks standing in his back. But it was just a bad dream, and in bad dreams, you could not control the events... Not even your own reactions... 

The familiar corridor seemed now strange, almost hostile. Trunks didn't like the echoes his steps were making on the floor; not only because that type of sound was confirming what his future counterpart had said, that no one had been living here for awhile, but also because of the dark, horrible, deadly message that was flying with that sound. 

He wanted to turn back and run away, but couldn't. Because Mirai-Trunks was behind him and Trunks knew (but didn't know how) that Mirai-Trunks was now holding his sword. 

If he turned now, he'd know what Freezer had been through when Mirai-Trunks made his first travel from the future, a few years before his own birth. 

The house was perhaps unoccupied by people, but all the familiar furniture was still there. Trunks reached the end of the corridor and turned on the right, towards the kitchen, where you could usually find someone at almost every hours of the day. His mind was not yet accepting what Mirai-Trunks had told him about the people living here. 

Passed the kitchen door, on the right against the wall, was a little table with a white and blue vase on it. Strangely, the red roses in the vase seemed fresh, as if someone had just changed them. Strange, for a place supposed to be unoccupied for years... Without really thinking, Trunks reached out to touch the vase. As soon as he got physical contact with it, the vase exploded in hundreds of blue and white particles. The water flew down the table to the floor. The roses that had seemed so fresh a second ago, shrinked and turned to a dark gray before falling in the now greenish stinking water that was remaining on the table. 

Trunks moved back in horror and hit another table in his movement. The wood of that table cracked in a sinister way and the table split into two neat parts that fell on the floor. 

"What did you do to my house?!", he yelled at Mirai-Trunks, without facing him. He didn't need to turn to check the presence of the sword. 

"Nothing", Mirai-Trunks answered, and Trunks didn't need to turn to see the smile that had been with that word. "*You* did all this", Mirai-Trunks went on. 

Trunks wanted to move away from the table and his foot got caught in an object laying on the ground, he recognized a soft toy belonging to his sister Bra, but he lost his balance and put a hand on the fridge to keep from falling. The door of the fridge fell on the floor while all the electric devices inside the fridge were exploding in sparkles. The food inside rotted at high speed and started spitting outside; the milk turned greenish and flew down the several floors of the fridge that was now collapsing. An awful smell was coming from the whole and Trunks saw the meat and vegetables darkening at high speed, then covered by a white moss before turning into a gray stinking poodle. Trunks felt nauseous and turned away to vomit, but nothing came. 

"Stop that now!", he yelled at Mirai-Trunks, "I want to wake up, and I want to wake up NOW! I hate breaking things!" 

"You've always been the most clumsy of us", Mirai-Trunks said in a calm tone, as if they had been raised together since their birth. 

"I'm not always breaking things!", Trunks growled. "I pay attention to keep a close control on my strength in order NOT to break things!" 

"Hmm... Too bad you stopped that close control on yourself", Mirai-Trunks raised his eyebrows and smiled in a I-am-just-constating voice . 

They were now standing at the entrance of the living room. Trunks saw Bra, sitting against the sofa, facing the blank TV-screen. She was wearing a dark blue jeans and a pink shirt. Her head was leaning forward as if she was sleeping and her green hair was covering her eyes. The same way Trunks previously didn't need to turn to know that Mirai-Trunks was holding his sword, now he didn't need either to see Bra's face to know that she wasn't sleeping, but that she was dead... 

"You'll see better if you switch on the light", Mirai-Trunks went on in a I'm-just-spending-my-free-time-with-you-bro voice. Trunks moved his hand like in a trance towards the switcher a few meters away from him. A blue thunder beam came out his fingers and hit the device. 

The plastic button blackened under the heat and jumped free from the wall, flying through the living room and bursting through one of the windows, disappearing in a sky that had turned in a strange blinding yellow-green. Thin blue thunders were moving along the electrical wires in the wall and reaching the spotlights and TV, which exploded under the effect of the surtension. Trunks reacted automatically and jumped towards his sister to protect her from the sharp pieces of TV screen exploding in her direction. No matter that she was already dead and that it didn't matter to her any longer. 

The moment Trunks passed his arms under her own arms to raise her from the floor, her head came off her body and fell on her lap. Blood spilled from her neck on Trunks face. He closed his eyes by reflex. When he opened them again, he saw that Bra's empty eyes were staring in his direction, as in an accusing gaze. 

Trunks started screaming - in the dream and not in reality, thanks God, otherwise he would have scared the hell out of the whole house. 

Mirai-Trunks pressed the tip of his sword against Trunks' back under his right shoulder - or was it the left one? 

"I am not finished with you", Mirai-Trunks' voice was lacking of the previous smile. His tone was as cold as the iceberg that hit the Titanic. "Remember well, Trunks, there's no hope, and..."   


Trunks woke up suddenly, his face wet, his breath short. 

"... nowhere to hide", he ended Mirai-Trunks' sentence...   


He felt a scream, raising from deep inside of him. He just got the time to put his fist in his mouth to prevent it from becoming free.   
  
  
  


**********************************************************

Trunks came out of the shower and started to dry himself with the warm towels he had previously put on the heater. 

He stared at his reflection in the mirror. The same face. Of course, some shadows under his eyes as a proof of a slight lack of sleep, but almost his usual face. Not the face of the movie star, but his face anyway. He smiled to himself. 

He didn't know how he had managed to go back to sleep after last night's dream. When he had woken up with as last vision his sister's head in her lap, staring at him with empty eyes, he had thought he'd never be able to go back to sleep for the rest of his life. But five minutes afterwards, his breathing had been regular again, and he was in a deep - dreamless - sleep. 

As he was coming out of the bathroom, the dream was still very precise in his memory, but not as horrible as the first time. Oddly, the sound of his steps echoing in the corridor was the only event still keeping the affective meaning. Nevertheless, that dream became one of the rare dreams of which he always kept the vivid memory almost as if it had happening in reality. 

He put a blue tee-shirt and a light gray sport trouser and started climbing down the stairs, barefoot, when the doorbell rang again. After a few seconds, he heard his mother warning loudly: "He is back!". 

Trunks froze in his movement, his foot suspended above a stairstep. A wind of cold terror was blowing on and inside of him. And the terror had a name: Mirai-Trunks. During a second, that's what he thought she had meant. That Mirai-Trunks was back from his post-apocalyptic future. 

He raised his hands before his face and looked at them. They were trembling slightly, and he was feeling as if all the blood had left his face. 

_*Stop that!*_, he ordered himself. _*You're not going to freak out because of a nightmare, heh?! You never did dreams showing the future, and there's no reason you'll start now! The type of dream you did is what happens usually under a lot of pressure and stress...* _

His internal discourse could sound great, it didn't prevent Trunks from getting a feeling of 'presque-vu', which, to the contrary of the deja-vu feeling, referring to something that already happened in the past, the presque-vu feeling was referring to something imminent to happen. 

Trunks then heard the voice of the inspector Hayden and understood that his fear had been pointless. He took some deep breathings to calm down and look at his hands. When their trembling disappeared, he decided he could appear in public without grabbing everybody's attention.   
  
  


**********************************************************

  
  
  
  


"The call was made from a phone-box in an underground metro station", Hayden started with the expression of someone who expected that. "And of course, nobody saw anything... So, we lost his trace..." 

Trunks was now completely awaken, and his last night's dream was starting to disappear as the fog in morning wind. He remembered about what one of technicians had told when they were installing the recording system on their phone-line. That all those expensive systems were usually installed to learn most of the time that your guy was calling from a public phone-box in a commercial center. 

"You are surprised?", Trunks asked Hayden coldly. Hayden looked at him clinically for a few seconds before answering in the same cold tone: "Not really, I was just hoping he would make a mistake. Those guys always end by making a mistake soon or later." 

Hayden looked around him for a brief moment, "I'd like to talk to Trunks' father, if he came back home since last time of course", he added with an ironic tone that went on Trunks' nerves. 

"Still not home", Bulma replied coldly. That fact was usual from Vegeta, but Hayden was looking at her as if Vegeta was seeing someone else. Bulma knew it wasn't the case at all - Vegeta was the type of men who could stay without a woman for a long period of time without even bothering - but she didn't like to be seen as the "poor and cheated wife" by anyone. 

"Too bad", Hayden started, "I wanted to compare his voice and Trunks' ..." 

Trunks and Bulma blinked at the same time, surprised. This was a subject they didn't expect from Hayden. They looked at each other with puzzled look, each of them hoping the other knew what Hayden was talking about. 

"Actually", Hayden started after observing their reaction, "I don't think it would change a lot unless your father had exactly the same voice as you, Trunks." 

Trunks frowned to him, waiting for the explanation to come. 

"I was hoping to get Vegeta's vocal prints to compare them to the one who called because...", Hayden marked a pause than raised his eyes to Trunks, "the killer and you have almost the same vocal print, with just a few differences...". 

Trunks blinked, he wasn't sure to understand. Hayden noted his reaction and took a folder from the suitcase he had brought with him. 

"A vocal print", Hayden started, "is a computer-graph representing the voice quality of a person. The voice is in fact analyzed according to different parameters as the harmonics, the tone, the resonance, ... What the specialists call the Head voice and the Chest voice. It's a way even better than the fingerprints to identify someone". 

He let them the time to digest the information he had given them. Bulma reacted the first, "so you wanted to compare Trunks' voice and the voice of the killer?". 

"Indeed", Hayden replied. 

"Bullshit!", Trunks snapped. "His voice and I aren't the same!" 

"They might seem different at first", Hayden retorted calmly in a patient tone, "I heard the recording.... But it doesn't mean anything... Remember Trunks... Head voice and Chest voice..." 

He paused, as if he was thinking of something else, then went on "Do Berlioz in 'Aristocats' and Mickey Randhall in 'Parker Lewis Never Loses' have the same voice in your opinion? " 

Trunks needed a few seconds to try to remember of the voices of those two characters. Coincidence, he had seen the Parker Lewis show a few days ago with Katrina, same for Bra who had watched the Aristocats anime after Goten had given her the tape. The voices were still resounding in his head. He turned to Hayden "Well... it's difficult to say... But I don't think so... 

"Well, actually, it's the same guy, Marc Lesser, who makes the two voices", Hayden said in an flat tone that reminded Trunks of the Agent Smith in the Matrix movie he had recently seen with Goten and Katrina. "But you'll understand better when you'll have seen this", he added, opening the folder, taking a sheet of paper and putting it on the table. Trunks and Bulma examined it. There was a single line of the sheet, with sometimes some strong and straight parts like pikes, always by group of two or three, but most of the time, the line looked like a perfect sinus. "This is Trunks' voice", he said and took another sheet from the folder, "and this is the killer's voice", he added by placing the second sheet next to the first one. 

"They look almost alike", Bulma whispered. 

Hayden put the second sheet over the first one and put the whole on a window. By transparency, you could see as if the two lines were on the same sheet. Actually, you could also be looking at only one sheet, for the lines were corresponding almost perfectly... Bulma gasped, "they *are* alike! But... how...", her voice sounded strangled. 

"They're not exactly alike", Hayden said, showing three pikes from Trunks' line which didn't appear on the killer's line. "The differences come from Trunks' graph, but only occurred when Trunks was shouting.", Hayden pointed at them one by one: "What you want, son of a bitch, Huh. What do you want, at the end.", "You tell me bullshit, yes. ", and "It's a damn lie. I know it". 

"I can tell you that at this very moment, all the specialists are getting very excited about those three differences", Hayden went on, "because even twins are not supposed to have identical Vocal prints. But of course, we know that Trunks yelled on the phone, while the killer remained calm the whole time." 

"No kidding", Trunks growled. 

"Do you have a twin brother, Trunks?", Hayden asked suddenly. 

"Oh no, I just have a sister and that's really enough like that--", Trunks started on an humorous tone before turning pale as the memory of Mirai-Trunks driving the Honda flashed in his mind... 

Hopefully Hayden was watching in Bulma's direction when Trunks' face became as white as the sheets of paper, but Bulma did see it. 

"That's why I was trying to check Vegeta's vocal voice...", Hayden went on, "... just in case a close relative to Trunks would have the same vocal prints. It never arrived before, but as we say: there must be a first time..." 

Trunks was not listening any longer... His dream was coming back... He fell like he couldn't breath... What if he had actually dreamt what was going to happen? Of course, he never had fore-dreams in the past, but what if he could fore-see what was going to happen because... 

Because he had a kind of psychic link with the killer...? Because the killer was himself from another time...? 

Trunks' eyes grew wider. That would explain the vocal prints... 

But where the hell was his father? 

Meanwhile Hayden was going on, "we thought of course that Trunks could have recorded his voice on a tape, letting silence for the moments he was supposed to answer, the whole dialog between Trunks and the killer would then just be a prepared screenplay similar to those Trunks is used as an actor--" 

"But he'd need an accomplice to make the phone call from the phone-booth, wouldn't he?", Bulma was trying to remain calm. She had an idea of who Trunks was actually thinking about. 

Hayden nodded, "Yes, of course; but... ", he breathed, "we examined the recording from the killer. We amplified the sound but we couldn't find the usual sound coming from a recorder. Besides...", he added, "you can hear on the background the announcements for the upcoming trains and their schedules, which corresponds to the time at which the phone-call was made". 

Trunks turned to Hayden, trying to keep a face as expressionless as possible: "And that's why you got the Twin idea? This would make things a lot simpler, than simply thinking of two people having the same vocal prints, heh? " 

Hayden nodded. Trunks went on, "This would put all your secure little identification system to the trash-can, heh?" 

Hayden tightened his jaws. Trunks didn't know actually why he was keeping Hayden as an enemy while he was perhaps going to need his help if the killer was his future counterpart. But he felt like he had to take a revenge on Hayden's previous behavior towards him. 

*must be my saiya-jin genes*, he thought bitterly. 

Then, some words came in his mind... Some words pronounced by a voice so similar to his...   


_"A little observation of the Saiya-jin genes could have foretell this and prevent all this blood-bath. Don't you think, brother?"_   
  
  
  


**********************************************************

  
  
  
  


"Where is he?", Goku asked as soon as he arrived at the Capsule Corporation. 

"He entered the gravitation room as soon as Hayden left and doesn't answer to anybody", Bulma said her voice showing distress. Goku walked rapidly towards the training room. He saw Katrina, sit near the door, and the back against the wall. 

"Katrina arrived a few minutes before you, Goku", Bulma notified. 

Katrina raised, "but I didn't get any success...", she sounded pissed. 

Goku passed before her and asked Bulma to type the code to enter the training room. "Once it is opened, Katrina, don't follow me in, you'd get squashed". He didn't warn Bulma, 'cause she was already aware of the danger of entering a room where the gravitation force could be several hundred times higher than what could be found on Earth. 

Katrina cross-looked him but said nothing. 

As soon as the door opened, Goku felt the heat of the inside as well as Trunks' ki which was much higher than the day before. He stepped in and closed the door almost instantly. The gravitation was high. Extremely high. He didn't know Trunks could train at such gravity. He looked where Trunks was, kneeling and breathing hard. He was covered of sweat and was still in Super Saiya-jin form. Goku noted that the air was too hot for Trunks be able to recover fast. But the youth's ki was still full of anger... or more, hatred... and was still ready for a battle. Goku considered the training cyborgs, destroyed ("exploded" was more correct) on various parts of the Gravitation Room. 

"Seems you lack of training partners, no?", he said in his usual happy tone. Trunks turned to him an annoyed gaze, still breathing hard, but saying nothing. "What do you think of it, Trunks?", Goku added , "Wanna spar a little? You'll explain me afterwards what's wrong..." 

Trunks remained silent for a moment, then raised slowly to his feet, glancing briefly to the training cyborgs, then back to Goku. 

"Right...", he said with a low voice. "Nothing better than a fight-session when you think too much, heh?". Goku blinked, he had once heard that sentence from Vegeta. As father as son... 

Trunks gathered his ki and took a fighting stance. "No worries, I'll try not to kill you", he added as a joke. 

But Goku wasn't laughing at all any longer.   
  
  
  


**********************************************************

  
  
  
  


"Chief Traxler!!!" Sharon shouted. 

Traxler froze. He had hoped reaching the bathroom safe from reporters by using a side corridor, but apparently Sharon Silver knew perfectly the place. Go figure... He turned to her a frozen smile while she was running to him along with her cameraman, "Miss Silver..." 

Sharon gave him a brilliant smile while other reporters, who had followed her example, were now running behind her. Traxler hoped his bladder wouldn't explode before he could escape from these pitbulls. 

"Chief Traxler", Sharon started, "where are you in the investigation to find who killed Gohan Son in this _horrible_ way on the Satan University campus this friday?" 

Traxler leant to the microphone she was directing to him. "No comment, this is part of the investigation. Now, will you excuse me...". But Sharon didn't let go. "Tell us about those vocal prints. I heard that the killer and Trunks Connor had a lot of similarities..." 

Traxler almost jumped and turned to Sharon some bewildered face, while all the reporters' attention had raised, if we could judge on all the flashes that appeared. "How do you know that? That's part of the investigation--", Traxler was almost chocking. 

Sharon, apparently proud to be the center of the attention, started playing the innocent, using Traxler same previous tone. "Oh, no comment, this is part of my job to find out. I'm not going to reveal my sources..." 

At that moment, Perry Richards, a slightly retarded cop came out of the bathroom. Sharon froze slightly. 

"Oh, hi Sharon", Richards said. Sharon got an unease smile. Traxler turned firing eyes towards Richards while all the microphones of the other reporters were aiming the newcomer. Richards went on, "Sharon, she swallows". All the reporters turned amused eyes in Sharon's direction who was whistling, suddenly absorbed in the contemplation of the mosquitos' corpses on the ceiling.   
  
  
  


**********************************************************

  
  
  
  


Trunks was leaning on the pavement of the Gravitation Room, trying to recover, his hair wet with sweat and laying on the floor under and around his head like a purple crown. He was feeling better now that he had this fight with Goku. Fighting training cyborgs was one thing, but once you had a huge anger to release, you needed better. Fighting the most powerful man in the universe was of a great help. 

He had been beaten, but he was sure Goku had held back so that he'd have the occasion to release all his energy. Trunks realized that was true: you could better think after a huge intense exercise. He sat again and glanced at Goku. For a moment, seeing Goku in almost perfect shape, he knew that Goku had barely shown what he had inside of him. 

For a moment, he could breath a peace of mind he had forgotten about since the moment he had met Gohan's gaze as the latter was tied on a chair in the Alpha Point Fraternity house's garden. 

This state of peace was broken when Goku talked: "so, tell me what was wrong, Trunks...". Trunks frowned as he was brought back to here-and-now with all the recent troubles. 

"Do you know where my father is?", Trunks asked for a start. It was not exactly what he wanted to say, but he had to start with something. 

Goku shook his head. "No, I can't even locate his ki. He's probably maintaining it in a very low level, but..." 

Trunks turned to him. Goku went on, "even if so, I could use the Instant Movement to locate him. I can't even do that." His gaze looked lost in some distance. "I think I would probably have to travel all over the world. He can perhaps hide his ki, but if I pass very close to him, I could feel his presence. Though..." 

He paused, then turned to Trunks. "... if he hides, it's probably for reasons that are his, and I don't think he would appreciate me to interfere with his business." 

Trunks looked downwards, thinking. Then he started talking with a low, flat voice: "Can you feel Mirai-Trunks' ki?" 

Goku opened wide eyes, "Mirai-Trunks is HERE?!!". His face was betraying his surprise, and also his joy. Trunks clenched his teeth. Goku felt hatred coming up again in his aura. 

"Of course, I should have doubted. He's the hero... Everybody likes him...", Trunks said in a bitter voice. Goku could feel the youth's hatred building like a wall around him for a brief instant. 

Trunks calmed down a little, and talked in a voice where all anger had - apparently - disappeared. "Goku, you can usually say when someone is good, or has a good side in him even if he first looks purely evil... as you did with my father when you first faced him so long ago.." 

Goku nodded, waiting for the following. Trunks paused a little, then went on: "could you also see a bad side in someone who looks purely good at first side?". Goku frowned, guessing what Trunks would say next. 

Trunks raised his eyes towards Goku: "Did you see any evil side in Mirai-Trunks? I need to know..." His voice was almost pleading. Trunks looked like he was about to burst into tears, "otherwise, I think I'll turn crazy...". Goku got a first thought: nervous breakdown. "Why do you think about Mirai-Trunks as the murderer?", he asked calmly. 

Trunks hesitated a moment, then took a deep breath, and started. 

He explained everything about the dream he had, about the vocal prints which were almost identical, about the constant reference to a HOPE that was lost. He hadn't planned to say so much at the beginning, but he had been caught in the flow and couldn't stop. Goku was saying nothing, letting Trunks getting it off his chest. He understood his reaction: Trunks needed someone to talk to, but Vegeta was always away and was not anyway the type of man to talk, and Bulma would never accept to hear anything against Mirai-Trunks. Of course, Trunks seemed to ignore that she loved her "two" sons the same way: She'd never accept to hear anything against "chibi" either... 

When Trunks stopped, he was out of breath. Goku asked calmly: "how long have you been hating Mirai-Trunks that much?" 

Trunks turned a bewildered gaze to Goku: "It's not that...". His anger was flashing again, "oh... I should have guessed... everybody is on his side...", he clenched his teeth, "I have been stupid..." he hit the floor violently with his fist. "I explain you why I think Mirai-Trunks *might* be the killer, and all you see is an immature obsession-jealousy against him, DAMNIT!!", he hit again the floor again, this time letting a visible hole. His hair had briefly flashed in Super Saiya-jin mode. 

He raised on his feet. "Yes, I HATE him!", he shouted. "I hate him because he managed to get a bond with my father that I'll never have! I hate him because I know how my father values him and that I'll probably never reach his level, even if I become stronger than him! I hate him because of what he did to our world, when people look at ME, they see HIM, and when they realize I'm not HIM they always have this disappointed look in their eyes! I HATE him because whatever I'll do, I'll never be HIM!!!", he went super saiya-jin, and Goku opened wide eyes when realizing that Trunks had reached for a few instant the second level without even realizing it. 

Too much power... too much anger... Of course Goku could master him if he was loosing control, but other people could be hurt. He reacted faster than his mind: he leaped towards Trunks and hit him with all his weight, sending the boy flying against the wall. And before Trunks could recover or attack again, Goku used a technique he had once seen from Trunks' movie partner, Lynn. He fold his arm and pressed his forearm with his free hand against Trunks' throat, blocking him against the wall, and leant his side against Trunks' body to prevent any movement from him. For safetly, Goku reached the third level of Super Saiya-jin, hoping that the Gravitation Room would be able to hold. Each time Trunks tried to break free, he was just strangling himself more. Goku was maintaining this key : "Trunks, you're going to calm down and listen to me, otherwise I swear I put you unconscious!". He finished his sentence by pressing a little bit more on Trunks' throat. The nervous breakdown he had suspected before, was really there, now... 

Trunks was in total rage, but was no fool, he nodded. Goku released a little bit the pressure on his throat so air could flow a little again into the youth's lungs. "There is something you need to know about Mirai-Trunks. He did perhaps saved the world once, people feel perhaps in debt towards him sometimes, but he NEVER used that to get any "celebrity" here! He stayed only 15 days among us during the war against the cyborgs, and besides killing Freezer, warning us about the upcoming war and giving me the medicine, he didn't do much...", Goku paused, "... except bringing some feelings into your father's heart! Those feelings made once your father told YOU publicly that he LOVED you before being killed by Buh! The only proof of love that Mirai-Trunks ever got from Vegeta was a brief sign of the hand before he returned in his future! You have nothing to envy him! He lives in a place where almost everybody's dead. He didn't grow old in a peaceful place but in the total chaos. His childhood has been so traumatizing that he'll probably never have a normal life, EVEN IF HE HAD TO LIVE IN THE PRESENT!!!" 

Trunks wasn't struggling any longer, but looked Goku right in the eyes: "and what if he snapped? What if his world has been destroyed in the future and that made him turn psycho? You said he was traumatized. You never know with people like that..." 

Goku got a bitter smile: "You want to know something, _son-of-Vegeta_? If such a thing was happening in the future, Mirai-Trunks would kill himself right away!" 

He let go of the pressure at once. Trunks found himself free but didn't counter-attack. He was looking at Goku from aside, trying to fully understand his words. Goku turned his back to him. He didn't need to look at him to read his thoughts in his ki. He had guessed that there would be somehow a rivalry one day between the two Trunks, but he hadn't suspected *this*. 

He had once seen these traces of breakdown in Mirai-Trunks, when he had explained about the death of all in the future, and when Goku had found Mirai-Trunks and Vegeta in the mountains; the son had spent 3 whole days, trying to get the attention of his father while Vegeta was trying his best to ignore him, too focused on his pride and his battles against the cyborgs. 

Something had happened in the Room of Spirit and Time when those two had been sent there the first time. He had realized that when they had come out. Vegeta had let Mirai-Trunks come out first, even if it meant that the others would feel his strength before Vegeta's. And even, as far as he could remember, Vegeta had kept his ki rather low, compared to Mirai-Trunks'. Later on, there had been at least two occasions where Vegeta had defended his son from the future. 

Yes, Vegeta was more human now, he'd be able to understand more than before... Goku would have to talk to him about Trunks before it became too serious.   
  
  


**********************************************************

  
  
  
  
  
  


"We found some similitude between Trunks' voice and the killer's voice but not enough to be able to call that a proof", Traxler was lying in his declaration to the media, but first, he had more or less been obliged to make a declaration due to the behavior of one of his colleague (Richards has been now assigned to the road signs), but didn't want to reveal all what they have yet. 

"We are still trying to locate Trunks' father to make some vocal test, but we couldn't reach him yet...", he went on. 

"Do you think of him as a suspect?", Sharon interrupted him. Traxler considered her for a moment. She had plenty of nerves to come back and to act this way. If he had been in her shoes, he would try to find a hole where to hide. But hey... her behavior was perhaps typical of women's. He would never understand them anyway, so... why bothering? 

"He could as well as could not... We just try to reach him for a few voice tests... now will you excuse me...", Traxler managed to excape, saving his dignity, towards the bathroom again. 

After all, he had given very few info to the journalists and had perhaps found a way to reach Vegeta, admitting that the man was watching the TV at that moment. But he could trust the media to display a picture of Trunks' father and to make the researches for them. It was a good day after all...   
  
  


**********************************************************

  
  
  
  


"He thinks it's Mirai-Trunks, right?", Bulma turned to Goku after she lightened up a cigarette. She had tried to stop, but in days like these, the call was too strong... 

Goku could see in her way of smoking that she was trying to hide her nervousity. "And you? what do you think?" 

Bulma pulled on her cigarette, then put it out in a plant pot. "I don't know what to think... Same voice... And it was obviously someone Gohan knew to get drugged so easily... Not to mention Vegeta's disappearance - he should have felt about Gohan - I really love Mirai-Trunks, but... you know the old adage, heh? it sounds like a duck, it swims like a duck, it gossips like a duck... well, it might be a duck..." 

She lighted up a new cigarette. Goku blinked: "A duck?" 

Bulma waved Goku's question away without even smiling: "if it's Mirai-Trunks - and I'll always think of ANY OTHER solution before accepting he might have turned into a psycho killer - I want to know WHY!". She paused. "That's the big problem actually. We all tried to know WHO without the WHY! Perhaps if we started from the WHY, we could find easier...". 

Goku wait for a few seconds before talking: "Bulma, we have to find Vegeta as soon as possible. If you know where he is, whatever the reason keeping him away, warn him. He has to come back. His son, and I'm talking about Present Trunks here, is going to turn crazy if it goes on like that. " 

"You know", Bulma pulled on her cigarette again before putting it out in the same plant pot, "I think that's perhaps the big deal... I mean... Everybody has been against him since the very beginning of this affair. Hayden is always after him, denying any other possibilities, the killer himself always calls him and puts a lot of stress on his shoulder. They wouldn't act differently if they really wanted him to snap." 

Goku got a weak smile, "if he does.... well... I got a Taste Of Things To Come in the Gravitation Room..." 

Bulma remained silent for a few seconds before lightening up a new cigarette. "I was thinking of something... We both know Mirai-Trunks could not do it. I can't imagining him coming from the future to kill everybody in a present he build with his own tears and blood. The last time I saw him was a year ago, and he seemed happy now. I think that Lynn did a lot in this change. She's not human, but she's a fighter, probably what he needed. I can't imagine him with a normal girl anyway..." 

"... as Katrina", Goku finished her thought. 

Bulma remained silent, then "well, at first sight, Trunks and Katrina aren't really made for each other... But... this situation will show how she'll react and adapt herself... If they both go through this, then they'll be perhaps a strong couple..." 

Goku humphed, then went on: "but... you wanted to say...? " 

Bulma put out her cigarette in the plant pot "Ah yeah...". 

Goku stared a moment at the plant pot before Bulma went on: "if we consider that it's another Trunks who made the call, I think of the future version of *this one* rather than the one from the alternate future. Especially if people keep on driving him nuts like that." 

Goku blinked, "you mean, Present Trunks would grow nuts in the future and come back in time to kill everybody?" 

Bulma leant on her chair: "if Hayden hadn't come with those vocal prints, I'd never had thought of this... This is so crazy", she said, putting her head in her hands. Goku seized his old time friend's wrist and squeezed it in comfort. 

"Goku... I feel bad...", Bulma whispered, "... what if it's a version of my son that killed yours...."   
  
  


**********************************************************

  
  
  
  


Trunks woke up with the cold contact of a wet tissue on his forehead. He opened his eyes and saw Katrina who was sitting on his bed and smiling softly to him. He smiled back to her. 

"How do you feel?", she asked with a gently voice. 

Trunks took a deep breathing and savored the fresh air in his room, compared to the heat of the Gravitation Room. He got a nervous laugh. Katrina didn't move but stared at him with half-surprised half-amused face expression. "What's so funny? I have a spot on my nose or something?" 

Trunks calmed down and started "if you knew though all the kind of weird scenarios I've been about the killer this morning...". He looked at her again. "I think Goku-san will think I'm crazy... But I feel more relax now... ", then he burst out laughing again. Katrina waited patiently, then "Perhaps if you tell me, I can laugh too, no? Unless you tell me you thought *I* was the killer." 

Trunks stopped abruptly and started at her, "You...?!" and then he resumed his laugh harder than before, tears appearing in his eyes. Katrina stared at the ceiling with an offended look that made Trunks laugh even harder, holding his ribs. 

She jumped suddenly and sat on him, "I could! Look how open guarded you are now...". Trunks' laugh almost died in his throat immediately, trying to figure out if she was serious or playing, forgetting for a brief second that she was just a mere human, and that still yesterday, she didn't know that most of her boyfriend's friends were coming from another planet, and that himself was just half-human; she leant on him, "... so open-guarded I could do *anything* I'd want with you." 

Trunks relaxed, "oh... and I'm supposed to play the victim, now?". Katrina nodded dramatically, Trunks had to fight a LOT not to burst out laughing again, he went on, on a pleading voice, "I don't wanna die...! What do you have in mind about me...?" 

Katrina leant really close to him, "I was thinking that ... I could perhaps stay here tonight, for a start,...". 

Trunks blinked. "Oh no please, I don't wanna die!!!" 

"You already said that line" 

"Shit!" 

"hey..." 

"Okie, hmmm... what about this: 'what light through yonder window breaks?' " 

"heh?" 

"... never mind... " 

Trunks brushed his hand on Katrina's cheek and started into her blue eyes while she was smiling to him. 

_*Something is wrong*_, he thought, trying to keep an gentle face. _*and I know what it is*_, he went on, silently as Katrina was leaning towards him to kiss him gently._ *Kirsten...* _

[to be continued... ] 

***************************** 

_Yep, a longer chapter, with more information (I know most of you want to know where Vegeta disappeard. But see? they *are* actually people in this story who wonder the same thing :D_

_Trunks hates Mirai-Trunks, now it is obvious. Sorry, I warned that this chapter was going to be gore. Hope you were not eating while reading the dream __sequence :p_

_Little note about the **voices**:  
_

_**Marc Lesser** indeed makes the voices of Berlioz in 'Aristocats' and Mickey Randhall in 'Parker Lewis Never Loses'... but in the french version of those two shows ;-)  
_

_The funny thing, for those of you who saw DBZ in french, is that Marc makes also **Mirai-Trunks**' voice ;)_

_SUPER THANX to **jdchs**, **Rose Angel**, and **Diane**, for your reviews :)))))) These kind of comments always give me the will to continue ^___^ *makes a HUGE HUG :) *_

_Rose Angel, you seem to like Mirai-Trunks evil? I hope you liked what you read in that chapter for Trunks' dream sequence :p White Hell 2 should appear within this month, yet I'm focusing on YELL14 in french for the moment ;-) Thanx also for the correction of punctuation :) I'll correct them and update chapter 8 soon ^___^_

_Jdchs and Diane: all your questions are pretty pretty interesting :-) Unfortunately, if I answer to one of them, you'll discover right away who is/are the murderer(s). So I save them for later. After the final chapter, I'll post a chapter where all pertinent question like yours will be answered with details examination of sequences of the story (and you'll see, you'll want to read te whole thing again to check the answers :p )_

_THANK YOU A LOT for what you wrote ^_____________^  
*gives a huge GLOMP to the three of you :D *_


	10. Fourth Call

**_Disclaimer: _**_  
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre TEN : Fourth Call**

  


**SON HOUSE, 10:27 p.m.**   


Goten turned and looked towards the living room from the kitchen where he was standing. His niece was drowsing, her head on her mother's knees while Videl was whispering with Chichi. To remain together. A question of survival. It was out of question to let someone isolated from the rest of the group, even if it was for going to the restroom. Goten got a slight smile at the idea of someone getting a noisy diarrhea and obliging all the others to endure the "concert". 

Since the phone-call that Pan had received in the morning, and the fact that the author of that call was still running free, nobody was feeling safe. 

"Apparently, it's not only against Trunks, but against anybody else in the team", Chichi had told firmly to Videl before ordering her to take refuge at her place with her daughter. 

Goten admired his mother. Despite the death of one of her sons, she was keeping a control almost perfect on herself - past the first hours of crisis. He sighed. It was true everybody in the team had been used for a long time to count on the dragon balls to resurrect people... 

Chichi was watching Pan, now asleep on her mother's knees. Kids' sleep was so unfathomable. All the terrors of the day were smoothing down into monsters you could subdue, and amusing adventures. Never before now, had she wished so much to sleep with such a self-abandon. 

"Do you think Trunks is able to ensure Bulma's protection by himself?", Videl asked in a whisper in order not to wake up Pan. Chichi blinked and brought her attention back to her daughter-in-low. Videl had her features drawn, but trusted the dragon balls to resurrect the father of her child. "He's half-saiya-jin", she replied._ He has the strength to deal with powerful enemies_, was her internal thought. Videl guessed her thought and went on: "Gohan too was a half-saiya-jin... And a mystic warrior. And yet..." She couldn't go on for awhile. 

"The only thing that worries me...", Chichi whispered, "... is that, according to Goku, Trunks didn't seem to be fine this afternoon. That's why Goku is away. He told me he was going to restart the researches to find Vegeta. Goten is the only one to insure the security of this place. I hope for Bulma that Trunks will be able to insure hers..." 

"If it goes on like that", Videl whispered, "perhaps it will be good to consider the gathering of the whole team in only one place". She paused, then "Do you think Vegeta is dead, too?". Chichi looked in a distance for several seconds before answering: "Vegeta loves showing himself as an arrogant bastard in public, but one needs to be completely blind not to realize that he loves his family." 

She looked in the direction of the window before going on, "Thus, if he's still not there while his family is in danger, that means that something really serious keeps him away..." 

Before she could make her thought more precise, Goten's cell-phone, placed in the charger near the kitchen door, started ringing. Pan shuddered in her sleep but didn't wake up. Goten casted an interrogative look towards the device, then walked to it, casting a fast look at the wall clock indicating 10:30 p.m. 

He picked up the received at the third ring. 

"Hello?" 

Chichi, who was about to ask him if it was about Vegeta, suspended her question in front of the order to keep silence intimated by Goten's hand gesture. 

"Who?", he asked, his eyebrow slightly frowned. 

During the seconds that followed, Chichi saw her surviving son's face expression passing from the interrogation to a pale stupefaction mask that quickly moved to cold anger as his breathing was accelerating. 

**"WHAT?!"**, was the only word he whistled through his teeth with rage. Rage was now altering his face features. 

"Goten...", Chichi called with a high-pitched voice she didn't recognize at first instance. She was probably close to a new hysteria crisis, she thought. Goten didn't seem to listen to her, but rather to his interlocutor. Chichi and Videl were feeling heavy hearts in front of Goten's silence and thunders of hatred they could read in his eyes. Was this call announcing that a new victim had fallen? And if it was the case, who...? Chichi had to admit the egoistic thought that it was not her husband... 

**"IF YOU EVER TOUCH ONE OF HIS HAIR... "**, Goten screamed at the phone, letting the threat unfinished. Pan woke up at once. For Chichi and Videl, the message was clear. Goten was talking with the killer. Acting impulsively, Videl leaped towards Goten. "No wai--", was all Goten could say to his interlocutor before Videl grabbed the phone from his hands. **"HELLO!!!"**, she screamed in the receiver. 

But all she could hear was the "clic" of the end of communication. Goten, apparently ignoring this fact, grabbed the receiver from her hands and started yelling at his turn: **"SONOFAB--"**. He interrupted himself when he realized that the communication had been broken. 

"What's happening, Goten?", Chichi asked in a voice where all self-control had disappeared. Goten breathed rapidly, looking first the cell-phone he was holding convulsively, then his mother. 

"It was him....", he said with an almost inaudible voice. "... and he's going to kill Trunks..." 

"What?!". Pan's over-shrilled voice was heard. Goten turned to the door, while putting his Cell-phone in the pocket on his coat. "I must go!!! Videl, Protect my mother!!!". 

Before any of the women could react, Goten was outside and flying like a bullet towards the Capsule Corporation. The fact that his mother on the point of hysteria, screamed his name, didn't slow him down.   
  


***********************************   


**CAPSULE CORPORATION 10:50 p.m.**   


Trunks only knew he had fallen asleep when the electronic rings of his cell-phone took him out of his dream, leaving only the memory of some kind of dark-gray streaks with vague pictures of pipes, dark water, and a lot of watches on both his forearm... 

As he was gaining consciousness, he felt a movement on his side that made him open his eyes quickly. At the same time, he realized that the cell-phone ring was not from his cell-phone. Turning his head, he saw Katrina, rolling on herself to take *her* cell-phone in her bag at the bottom of the bed. Trunks gazed again towards the ceiling. He was feeling completely hazy, but judged that his state could be a consequence of the shock-training he had with Goku during the afternoon in the gravity room. 

He heard at Katrina's "hello" that she was in the same state than him... probably for other reasons... He couldn't prevent a slight victorious smile to appear on his lips. 

Katrina remained silent for a few seconds, her eyes closed as if still under the influence of the sleep, then turned to Trunks with the same drowsy voice : "It's for you". 

Trunks took the cell-phone, half-surprised. Who could try to reach him on Katrina's cellular? But in his state, he wasn't any longer asking himself questions. He put the cellular near his ear. "Yeah?" 

//Ow ow ow, Trunks...// 

The low, and now horribly familiar voice... 

**"FUCK!!!"**, the half-saiya-jin yelled, making Katrina startle before she turned towards him, her eyes wide while the comprehension seemed to reach her. 

//Don't scream like that//, the low and soft voice went on, //I didn't came for you. At least this time//, he added with a playful tone. //I find your girlfriend pretty as a picture... Especially in this... uh... very light clothing...// 

And the characteristic clic of end of communication was heard before Trunks could retort anything. 

He turned quickly towards Katrina, "Get dressed! **FAST**!!", and he jumped towards the window to close furiously the curtains and mask the view to an eventual external observer. 

"What's happening?", Katrina whispered with a voice that sounded more like the sqeek of a mouse while finishing to put her clothes on, as if she could guess the answer by herself. Trunks grabbed her arm - perhaps too brutally - and dragger her to the door. 

"I'm going to put you in a safe place in one of the laboratories", he whispered, so that she would be the only one to hear him. 

"Why?", she croaked, "what's happen- -?" 

"The killer is here!!", Trunks retorted. _My God, she's so slow..._ "And he is after you, as it seems. ". 

Katrina said nothing, but the sudden blankness of her face spoke for her. Trunks summed up the situation: "I'm going to put you in safe place in one of the labs, and then I settle old scores with this sonofabitch!". He interrupted himself, judging the irony of the insult, if the killer was who he was thinking. 

"In brief, I'm the lure, right? " 

Katrina's voice was bitter. Trunks half-turned to her in the half-light. "It's the only way I can get him. I ignore where he is. But trust me, he won't get you". 

"Speak of a choice...". Her voice was even more bitter now, but she became silent, clenching convulsively Trunks' hand. 

Trunks put his hand on the handle of his room-door, trying to mentally scan the corridor on the other side of the door, searching for a ki that wouldn't be his parents' or his sister's. By luck, Bulma had taken Bra to her parent's building for the night. The security system was better in that building than this one. Nothing. There were no one in the corridor... 

But he wasn't reassured much. His mind was quickly turning in order to determine the laboratory room that would offer the best protection to his girlfriend, while allowing him to prepare the better snare to the killer. 

A thought flashed through his mind: the security system of his grandparents' building was probably safer than this one, this building was equipped with a state-of-the-art system. There were few chances that the killer could enter inside this building without provoking the alarm. 

_Genetic Identification_, he suddenly remembered, feeling like an acid bubble bursting in his stomach. _If I can enter the building, so can Mirai-Trunks. We are like twins._

He clenched his teeth while scanning again the corridor. He couldn't detect anything. But that meant nothing... In the future, Mirai-Trunks had learned how to dissimulate his ki to escape the cyborgs. It had become like a second nature for him. 

Trunks passed rapidly in his mind the way to take Katrina to the laboratory. He was thinking of the one where the particles-accelerators tests were done. It was - as far as he knew - the most resistant laboratory; but not the closest... He wondered how would be a direct fight against Mirai-Trunks. They had never fought a real fight in the past; who knows? Perhaps he would be a match for him. 

Boosted by the latest thought, Trunks grabbed Katrina's arm and opened the door slowly, spying the least movement outside, pricking up his ear to detect any breathing that wouldn't be his or Katrina's. 

Instead of reassuring him, the reining silence outside only increased his nervousness. 

_He's putting me in a stress-situation_, he thought. _He probably wants to recreate the kind of psychological pressure of the hunter and the prey, like what he lived in the future..._

He squeezed Katrina's arm perhaps a little bit too tight for the latter, under the effect of the rage. 

_I'm going to show him, that the prey can use claws and fangs too._

He took a last breathing, then rushed in the corridor, half-dragging Katrina behind him. He had the feeling that a vise was shutting on him since he had left the semi-security of his room. He expected at every moment to see the killer appearing suddenly in front of them, or behind them. _Peek-a-booh! _ The echo of their footsteps in the corridor seemed to create the illusion of a third person running along with them. Trunks was feeling on the edge of total panic. He could feel cold sweat sticking his tee-shirt to the skin of his back. They were still running with the passing corridors lightened only by the light filtering from the outside by some windows with as result that the place seemed to bath into some bluish and diffused light. Trunks knew well enough the layout of the building to be able to move rapidly in the darkness. Always running, they were passing in front of doors of lower security laboratories. Nothing good for Katrina's protection. Trunks saw at the end of the corridor the firebreak door leading to lower levels where laboratories more important - and thus more secured - were placed. Five meters from the door, he slew down, his instinct warning him of an imminent danger. The next moment, as if to prove him right, the door opened slowly. 

And remained opened. 

Trunks stopped right his progression, crouching, his eyes widened and his simmering nostrils, completely caught in this life-and-death game. He could hear behind him Katrina's gasps for air, her fear probably preventing her to gather her breathing silently. 

The door was remaining open, and nothing was happening. Trunks couldn't hear any noise coming from the other side of the door. But the silence was even more frightening. Without realizing it, he had bared his teeth in a wild beast grin. He didn't seem to realize that he was completely off-guard in the middle of the corridor, and that if his opponent was going to shoot with a laser as he had used against Gohan, he wouldn't be able to protect himself. 

The silence lengthened a few more seconds. Trunks didn't dare to move, fearing that the slightest movement could break this fragile equilibrium and trigger off a gigantic storm of violence. He scanned again mentally the darkness of the other side of the door. He couldn't detect any ki, but his sixth sense was warning him of a presence. 

Suddenly, the tension was too strong for him and he let go Katrina's hand to fire impulsively a burning blast towards the open door. Katrina just had the time to throw herself to the floor, her hands on her head, in order to avoid the explosion that followed. The explosion started just behind the door with a deafening noise. Under the effect of the sudden air dilatation, the door itself was blown off its hinges and flew towards Trunks, pushed by the hot air, the flames and the smoke. It rebounded two meters before Trunks and Katrina and went smashing against the wall. 

_Did I got him? _Was all what Trunks could think at that moment. They had been no scream from the eventual enemy. Already, the anti-fire system had started, spraying the corridor with a frozen shower. 

Trunks was at the point of wondering if the killer had really been there, or if his perception of the danger had just been an illusion that his nerves had created, when a movement in the flames caught his attention. If, at the beginning, he thought of some plays provoked by the wind in the middle of the fire, he quickly changed his opinion when he saw a big size shadow moving among the flames. 

Behind him, Katrina was raising on her feet; "Trunks...! LOOK!!!". Trunks didn't need her advice to gaze the enemy who was standing in front of them.   
  


***********************************   


Bulma startled and realized she had fallen asleep in the seat. She was surprised at the beginning, casting a look around the room where she was. She had fallen asleep in the living room of her parents' building. She remembered to put Bra in the friend-room, to have tucked her in her bed before checking the security system, and to have come back in the living room. She had taken a National Enquirer magazine to keep her mind busy, thinking she would never be able to reach the sleep. 

Her nerves had perhaps exhausted her without her awareness - unless it was the magazine that was perhaps more boring that what she had thought - she had dived right in a deep sleep without any dream. She was caught by a horrible stiffness, especially at the level of the nape of her neck. She started thinking that she had probably slept almost two hours, and in an uncomfortable position in the gray leather seat that her father loved so much. She managed to raise - not without difficulty - from what she had always imagined - in her tender childhood - as a gigantic dull-colored carnivorous flower because of the way you could sink into that seat, with all difficulties to drag yourself out of it. She walked with a prudent pace towards the light-switch, managing not to bang herself into the hexagonal marble coffee table (when she was a kid, she suspected it to be half-alive, and to move during the night to better hit her in her tibias when, caught by a nocturne raging appetite, she was moving discretely until the kitchen fridge). 

It's only when she reached the switcher and when the living-room was engulfed into the light, that she became aware of what had dragged her out of sleep; the unpleasant and repeating sizzling, so similar to an electronic alarm-clock, and yet, so different with the underlying threat it seemed to whisper to her subconscious. 

Bulma turned on herself and walked with a fast pace towards the wall near the kitchen door. She already knew what she was going to find when she opened the white plastic plate dissimulating the security panel. There were about twenty similar panels, disseminated in the various buildings of the Capsule Corporation (one in all Bulma's rooms also). They allowed people to check from various places the security status. 

When she opened the plastic door, she noticed instantly what she was fearing: only one pilot light was blinking; and it was referring to a fire alarm in her own building, the one where Trunks and Katrina were actually. 

_I just hope_, she started, _that it's not Trunks who lost control and provoked all this by himself..._   


***********************************

At the light of the flames, reflecting in the multitude of water droplets from the anti-fire system, Trunks observed his opponent in details. With a size similar to his, wearing an ample black toga - probably anti-fire, as he didn't seem at all affected by the presence of the flames in which he was standing - his face, half-hidden by the cowl of the toga, was pallid and shiny, reflecting the flames as if it was just a mask; strange dark and sinuous furrows seemed to have been dug under his thin and empty sockets. 

There, standing silent in the middle of the flames, he looked totally like the Death Angel. Trunks couldn't detect any ki coming from him. 

_No ki, but he survived my attack..._

"Finally you reveal yourself to the light. Not too early!", Trunks said with an anger tone where an impressed tune had filtered. _Damn it! _He made an irritated movement of his head to move away from his eyes a lock of his hair wet with the cold water falling from the ceiling. He could feel on his arm Katrina's clenched fingers, remembering thus her presence. 

Too late to put her in safe in one of the underground labs. He would have to settle with what he would find at this level, for the other would never let him pass calmly with his prey. 

The silence and immobility of the other ended by destroying Trunks' remains of patience and nerves, and, ready to make him pay the past days psychosis, he reacted impulsively one more time: Placing himself before Katrina, he fired a blast to his opponent. 

The killer was fast to react. A hand as pale as his "face" gushed out the black toga and pushed the ki-ball aside, provoking a new flame-and-smoke explosion. Katrina took shelter behind Trunks and closed her eyes, but Trunks saw the killer leaping towards them through the curtain of flames, taking advantage of the sudden confusion. Trunks just had the time to leap on the left, pushing violently Katrina on the right. 

The killer's hand, ended by kind of blood-red claws, cut the air between both of them. Caught by his momentum, the killer ended two meters behind them. Trunks didn't loose his time: he leaped with all his weight against his opponent, projecting him further, while yelling to Katrina: "Shelter yourself in one of the labs, and lock the door!!!" 

Katrina remained petrified, not moving of an inch, gazing the killer with a look that was varying between terror and curiosity. 

"**HURRY!!! AND BARRICADE YOURSELF!!!**", Trunks screamed. 

This seemed suddenly to wake up Katrina; she startled, then raised on her feet and grabbed with a trembling hand the door against which she had collapsed. The door opened without any trouble, and Katrina swept into the laboratory, slamming the door behind her. 

"Now it's between you and me!", Trunks said with rage to his opponent. He felt energized by this mixing of cold rain and flames' heat. The enemy... The one who had haunted his days and his dreams, was finally in front of him. Not anymore an elusive ghost, but a being provided with a body, able to feel pain if hit... And to bleed if well-hit... 

//It's not your turn yet...//, the killer answered with his calm and familiar voice - as his lips didn't move, Trunks got the confirmation that this pallid face was nothing more than a mere mask. //Are you that eager to die?//, he went on with a falsely astonished tone. 

Trunks took a fighting stance, ready to jump on his opponent, ready to make everything to reverse the roles of the hunter and the prey. "I'm not the one who will die". He had put in his voice all the Saiya-jin arrogance made-in Vegeta. 

//Aah?//, the masked killer went on, //you're so fool... The very kind of a hero... You want to protect your girlfriend? But make no mistake... Will we keep on fighting here and she too will die, soon or late//. 

Trunks measured the truth in those words. Two attacks from him had already seriously damaged a part of the corridor. He would have to stop using ki-attacks but only his kung-fu knowledge. 

_He knew I was going to act that way, _he thought, _he used a laser against Gohan; he perhaps can't use ki-attacks. And he's using Katrina as a hostage to be sure I won't use them as well..._

//Try to see if your speed can match mine//, the killer said with a playful tone before performing a fast retreat movement and disappearing in the shadows of the corridor from where Trunks and Katrina had come a few minutes before. 

**"COME BACK HERE!!!"** Trunks yelled before running after him. If he was to loose him now, the worst was to fear. 

***********************************   


Bulma had rapidly put a warmer coat on her shoulders and had taken a uzi with her when she saw the second fire pilot light blinking on the security panel. It corresponded to a location very close to the first one. Perhaps the first fire had provoked the second, but her instinct was screaming at her that there was nothing natural in all that. 

She put her hand into the pocket of her coat, while holding the uzi with her other hand, and met at the bottom of the pocket a little piece of paper, rigid and rectangular. She took it out and recognized the visit card that Lee, Hayden's assistant, had given her in case of problem. She measured rapidly the situation, and her potential compared to the potential of a killer carrying weapons able to finish a mystic warrior like Gohan. She'd probably need backups, and especially, if Hayden could see that Trunks was not the killer, it would help her son to get out of his actual nervous breakdown.   


***********************************

Trunks was raging. The killer seemed to know perfectly the Capsule Corporation complex. As well as him at last. He was inching his way along the shadows with a staggering speed, and Trunks, used to locate his enemies with their ki, had trouble to follow this one. 

_I must grab that toga_, Trunks thought, _I must see who's hiding behind that disguise!_

But the killer was slipping away at each attack from Trunks, seeming to draw him further and further in the meanders of the complex, without displaying once the least hesitation on the way to take. Taken by the rage, Trunks was following blindly, determined to deliver a fatal blow to his opponent. And the fact that the killer dodged each of his attack was enraging him even more; he had to feeling to fight against a puff of air. 

At a certain time, the killer swept into one of the corridors dived into almost total darkness. Trunks rushed into it at his turn and was caught by the darkness. He reached automatically the light-switcher but no light appeared. At the end of the corridor, a window diffusing the moonlight allowed him to distinguish a furtive movement of his opponent. He leaped towards that unique source of light, but he hadn't made three steps that his instinct start yelling; the next moment, he felt a violent blow on the nape of his neck and fell on the floor, wide eyes. He was seeing blinking lights before his eyes and pressed his hands on the nape of his neck, his eye convulsively closed, the mouth opened in a silent cry, rolling on himself, torn by the pain. A foot-kick rolled him on his back; he opened his eyes and saw the dim light of the end of the corridor reflecting on the pallid mask of his opponent. He remained petrified, considering the proximity of his enemy. 

_How could he move to fast?_   


[to be continued... ] 

***************************** 

_  
Sadic? Meeee? ;P   
Only because I end the chapter at a crucial moment? ;)   
Baaaaah, you're sooo bad with me ;PPPP _

_Diane, Rose Angel, Judith and ssTrunks, THANX FOR YOUR REVIEWS ^__________^ They were really interesting and I spent happy moments reading them :-))))_

_I'm happy you all seemed to love the dream sequence ^_________^  
(I had a friend who puked ^^; )  
_

_About that dream thing... hmm, there's still a lot to discover about it. It wasn't as simple as Trunks first thought :p_

_I'll try to answer about some of your comments without being a spoiler ;p_

_**Vegeta's disappearance:** as mentionned before by Bulma, it's not the first time that Vegeta disappears without saying where he goes, that's why people in the dragon team didn't worry at the beginning. But now you saw that chichi and Videl are also finding it strange, the fact he's not back after what happened...  
_

_They were so used to Vegeta coming and going that it took them some times to realize that perhaps there was something wrong with him..._

_**Judith: **  
"We have to pay attention in the dialogue. It remains me the scene between Norman Osborn and the Green Goblin in "... aah? OO; I still have to see the movie ;P I'll be able to compare, then... :)_

_**Rose Angel:**  
__Guy/Girl: *walks up, handing him a glass of formula* Hi, drink this.  
Vegeta: ...  
-- LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D   
--- of course if you say that if someone drugged Vegeta, it was someone closed to him, then you have to think the same way for Gohan... ;-)_

_**Diane: **  
__"Can Saiyan family members bond? " Uh... if by "bond" you mean if they can have like a mind-link between then, I think YES. Remember when Mirai-Trunks fought Bojack (in one of the movies) and was nearly killed, Vegeta sensed it (while he was sleeping at the Caps. Corp.) and went directly to save him._

_**ssTrunks: **  
Interesting idea, the babidi thing... Honestly I hadn't thought about it :D (oops! spoiler ^^;;;;;;; )_

_I'm working on a prequel of YELL: **"Nothing Hurts Like Your Mouth"**. It's in proof-reading phase for the moment, but should appear tomorrow or saturday :-)  
Some points of the story will explain a few things about YELL (especially a point that will be mentionned in YELL14). I realise some of you don't seem to like Lynn. What happened between Lynn, Mirai-Trunks an present-Trunks will be deeper explored in that fic, and you'll discover how Katrina met Goten and Trunks (many of you don't seem to like Katrina neither :ppp )_

_Gotta go now... 03h35 am... I need some sleep :p_

_See ya :D_

  



	11. The Best Friend

**_Disclaimer: _**_  
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre ELEVEN : "The Best Friend"**

Trunks was still lying on the floor, not daring to move, gazing the killer standing next to him, of which he could only glimpse the shining mask in the global darkness of his dark toga. He felt unable to move, not due to the pain in his neck, but due to the deep terror that was paralyzing his muscles. He suddenly got a flash on a moment of his childhood, a moment he would never have imagined that he would one day to remember of... 

He was five years old and had taken the opportunity of a free Saturday where his father hadn't grabbed him by the tee-shirt yet towards the training room, to go to Goten's house. With Gohan, the three of them had gone into the mountains - less familiar environment for Trunks than the city and its dangers - and the afternoon had been shared between amusing fights and discoveries. 

At a precise moment in that afternoon, Gohan had put a bunny in Trunks' arms. The animal seemed calm and didn't try to escape, even if Trunks, hesitating on the behavior to have, didn't tighten his arm around it, letting him free of movements. He had turned to Gohan with a wide smile. "Look Gohan, I tame him only by touching him!" 

Now Trunks could understand. It was not the calm, but the total terror that had immobilized the bunny. 

//Do not worry//, the killer's calm and soft voice said, //I told it wouldn't be your turn today, and I'll keep my words//. 

_Katrina! _

Trunks gathered his ki and, ignoring the pain, jumped in the air, making a sweeping with his left leg in order to mow his opponent down, but one more time, the latter dodged with a fluid retreating movement. He disappeared by the door both of them had passed a few moments before. Trunks started pursuing him, but had to stop for two seconds, taken by a slight vertigo due to the pain in the back of his neck. A good sign: the pain was decreasing. Trunks bit his lower lip violently in order to leave his torpor. A taste of blood invaded his mouth but he didn't pay much attention to it, crossing the open door. 

The killer was nowhere in sight, but Trunks knew where he had probably gone. He leaped in the direction of the laboratory where Katrina had taken shelter. 

*************************** 

Bulma hang up the phone-receiver, remembering one more time of the conversation she just had with Hayden's assistant. No, the intrusion alarm hadn't gone off; Yes, she had activated them before leaving the building where her son was; Yes, two fire detectors had gone off consecutively. No, none of the watching cameras were working, same for the rest of the security system, except for the fire alarms, connected to another circuit. 

She clenched the Uzi in her hands. Jones had told that she was sending backups in case of, but had asked her to remain cloistered in the shelter of her parents' building. She was worried for Trunks, but wondered if, in case of conflict, she wouldn't be more a trouble for him than a real help. Then she remembered of the way Gohan had been killed: with a laser machine... The opponent wasn't perhaps as strong as the powerful enemies they had all faced in the past, and perhaps that that series of phone-calls was just a way to install a kind of psychose to compensate for a lack of offensive power. 

Confident, she walked to Bra's room to check that everything was okay before going into attack.   


*************************** 

Trunks was running along the silent corridors, silence only broken by the sound of his steps echoing on the walls. He wasn't taking in reverse sense the way the killer and himself had taken a few minutes earlier, made of detours and loops, but he was taking a shortcut that only a perfect knowledge of the place was dictating him. 

In his mind, he was trying to make a summary of the recent events: the killer had spared him... At least temporary... Trunks thought: this entire chase among the Capsule Corporation corridors, this brief fight, he could scarcely imagine that it had just been set-up for the killer to remind him that he wouldn't be today's victim. To move him away from Katrina? No, it could seem possible, but if you referred to the killer's speed, he could have as well ousted Trunks from the beginning and finished Katrina in front of him, as he had done for Gohan... 

But perhaps this wouldn't have been subtle enough for him. If you analyzed the way the phone-calls were done and the way Gohan's murdered had been orchestrated, the killer liked to add an artistic side to his actions. As a cat playing with a mouse. Killing someone coldly didn't seem to interest him. Trunks thought that if the victim were offering himself or herself to the killer, the latter would loose all interest in him or her. 

_It's not someone who acts impulsively_, Trunks thought as he was approaching fast the door that would lead him to the corridor where Katrina's lab was, each action was prepared with art and time... 

At that moment, he heard a deafening explosion as well as Katrina's scream, a silence, then several gunshots. 

_What? He's already there?_, Trunks thought, unbelieving, as he was passing the door like a fury.   


*************************** 

Bulma was alerted by the gunshots. She was in Bra's room, assuring herself that her daughter was safe before going into exploration in her own building. She was still tergiversating about interfering or not - with the eventual risk to be a trouble for her son - when the sound of gunshots helped her to decide. Listening only to her maternal instinct, she went out of her daughter's room, locked the door and rushed for the exit, clenching her uzi against her. In a distance, she could hear the police sirens... But perhaps would they arrive too late...   


*************************** 

Trunks was running towards the lab's door with the damn feeling to run in molasses, with the lab-door moving backwards as he was approaching it. The silence was worst than anything. No, it wasn't really pure silence. There was still this unstopping and annoying sound of water from the anti-fire system, pouring from two sources into the corridor. 

Then suddenly, as he was going to put his hand on the door handle, dreading what he would find on the other side, the door exploded in his direction, projecting him half-unconscious against the wall. 

In the confusion that followed, Trunks got the feeling that an old dream was coming back in his mind. He was swimming in a dark and cold water, trying to edge his way through pipes arranged in a random pattern; saving his remaining oxygen as his lungs were starting to burn. Over him, he could distinguish a vague light, as if over water it was twilight. 

Then the vision vanished, and as he was trying to recover totally his mind and to move himself away from the door half-covering him, Trunks saw with a deja-vu feeling the killer walking slowly towards him among the new flames and water falling in droplets from the ceiling... The killer stopped a few feet from him and seemed to consider him calmly - but you could never say, with this livid mask on his face. 

The vision was blurred; Trunks blinked tightly to clear his sight, but when he opened his eyes again, the killer was gone. 

_Had it ever been real?_ , he wondered, before remembering of Katrina. He freed himself from the door, and rose on his feet, leaning against the wall. 

From the wide entrance of the lab, he could distinguish a few objects with the light of the flames, but no movement could be detected. 

_Why did he use a weapon? _Trunks wondered, walking like an automate inside the lab. _I am sure he doesn't need that to eliminate someone... _

His shadow, projected inside the lab, was masking most of what the firelight would have revealed, but he noticed immediately the wide hole in the wall on his right. It was probably from where the killer had entered the lab. Now that he was thinking about it, he had previously seen that the door of the previous lab was slightly opened. But in his rush to reach this lab, he hadn't paid much attention to it. 

He glanced around the various items, broken for most by the explosion and lying on the floor. He moved his glance away from the wall while still noting the damages when an irregular and metallic light-reflection caught his attention. He half-closed his eyes to reduce the influence of the glimmer from the fire in the corridor and distinguished a gun, aimed at him. Almost simultaneously, he heard a weak and panicked breathing. 

"Katrina?" 

He heard a variation in the breathing rhythm and, walking towards its source, could finally see who was aiming the weapon in his direction. 

Katrina was alive. From where he was, he couldn't see if she was hurt or not, but he could see her eyes, and what he read in them stopped him on the spot. She had taken refuge in a dark corner of the lab, but he could read in her eyes the panic of a prey at bay. And of course, the wide mouth of the weapon aimed at him. She was probably in total panic, Trunks thought. And panicking people have sometimes impulsive and unexpected reactions. 

_She's gonna shoot me if I don't identify myself_, Trunks thought, _she must be thinking it's still the killer... _

He raised a soothing hand before him and whispered with a calm voice while exposing his face to the changing and flickering light from the corridor: "Katrina... It's me, Trunks... You have nothing to fear anymore... He's gone..." 

For a few seconds that seemed to him like eternity, Katrina kept aiming him, a strange expression in her eyes. _She doesn't recognize me or what?_, Trunks thought, unease, before seeing the weapon lowering slowly in a shaking movement. "Trunks?" 

The voice was almost inaudible. Trunks rushed towards her, kneeling and put his hands on her shoulders in a protective attitude. He felt she was trembling under the contact, but felt something else, also... He didn't need the light to recognize this sticky sensation under his fingers. 

"Katrina, are you hurt?" 

It was more an observation than a real question. He felt the palm of his hand covered with blood. At that moment, Katrina collapsed in his arms, as defeated by the tension, crying against his chest. 

"Oh Trunks... he..." 

Trunks passed his hand through her hair, "Sshhhh... Kat-chan... It's over.... It's over...". He had to repress a shudder; the contact with Katrina had abruptly brought a strange and somehow unpleasing sensation to him. Before he could analyze it, the sensation disappeared as quickly as it came. He shook his head, blinking several times. 

Softly, he removed the weapon from her hands, dreading a new uncontrollable panic-crisis. He could hear in a distance the police sirens, wondering if it was for them and who had warned them. 

Holding the gun in his left hand, Trunks held Katrina against him with his right arm and helped her to rise on her feet to lead her in a safer place. She collapsed again against him and he got again that unpleasant sensation, as if he had put his hand on a snake nest. He realized he had been close to push her away violently. _What's happening to me?_ Repressing that dark sensation, he started to walk with her, carrying her more than just holding her up. They reached the exit of the lab and walked towards the middle of the corridor, trying to avoid the fiery scraps littering the floor. Trunks got the sudden thought that they were in an open-space and that he hadn't checked if there was an enemy presence in the corridor when a movement in the corner of his eyes caught his attention. 

By pure reflex, he turned on himself, holding Katrina against him, and aiming his weapon on... 

...Goten, who was standing in the middle of the corridor, an expression of horrified surprise and incredulity on his face. 

"Thanx God, you are both alive...", he let go in a sigh of relief. 

Trunks lowered his weapon as Katrina was collapsing again against him. Goten ran forwards to help Trunks to hold her. 

"Take care!", Goten screamed, catching Katrina as her knees were letting go. He looked at the blood on Katrina's shoulder, then raised his eyes on Trunks' face whose cut lips and forehead were covered of blood, even though the young semi-Saiyan hadn't realized it yet. "We'd better move away from here", Goten said with a firm but worried tone. "You are both hurt..." 

Trunks frowned; he hadn't noticed yet that he too was bleeding. He passed the back of his hand holding the gun on his forehead and examined the blood he brought back. "Boah... I've seen worse...", he said, morose, remembering the fights against Buh, Broly, and so many others during his childhood. Goten understood what Trunks was meaning and smiled. The dangers one had been through, had no secret for the other one. 

"Perhaps", he whispered, "but we'd better not loose any time here", he added, passing an arm under Katrina's shoulders, apparently the most hurt - especially morally - of the two. 

An item fell from the pocket of his coat and hit the floor in a deaf sound. Trunks didn't pay attention to it, too busy observing the corridor in the eventuality to see his enemy back- his assassination attempt had failed and Trunks was thinking that the killer wouldn't let his work unfinished - when he felt Katrina clinging to him. 

"Oh my God... Trunks, look!" 

Katrina's voice was almost a whisper, but loaded with panic. Trunks followed her gaze and saw the item fallen from Goten's pocket. A cell-phone of which the black plastic was gleaming softly in the light of the flames. Goten saw his friend's face turning pale suddenly. He lowered his face towards the cell-phone. "Ah...". He lowered to grab it, but when he rose again, his gaze met Trunks', incredulous, and Katrina's, horrified. 

"What?" 

Katrina moved herself from Goten's sustaining arm to hold Trunks tighter. Goten frowned and repeated: "What?" 

"It can't be...", Trunks whispered. 

Goten turned his gaze towards Trunks whose look was displaying a complex series of emotions such as fear, surprise, anger, sadness, ... 

"But, what?!", Goten asked again, frowning deeper. Trunks and Katrina made a step backwards. Goten was still holding the cell-phone in his right hand, arms apart. "What's going on?!" 

'Stay where you are...!", Trunks was gazing Goten without really believing to the situation. He felt like he was going to turn nuts. It couldn't be true... And yet, what was Goten doing here in the middle of the night? 

"Trunks!!", Goten said, moving a step closer, "what's--?" 

"I said STAY WHERE YOU ARE!!", Trunks yelled, aiming Katrina's weapon at Goten, still not believing the reality of the situation._ Mirai-Trunks will arrive, he will propose me a ride in his black Honda prelude, with Gohan sitting on the back seat, and afterwards I will wake up in my bed, screaming insanely... _

_And everything will be fine... _

At that moment, the corridor was wiped with an intense white light. The next moment, a voice resounded. "POLICE!! FREEEEEZE!!!"   


***************************   


Bulma was walking towards her building among the cars with aggressive revolving-lights, afraid of what could have happened to her son. 

"Don't pass, Madame!" a voice said as a hand was landing abruptly on her shoulder. 

Bulma released herself violently, "I live here! It's me who called you!!!", and without paying attention to the cop's embarrassed apologizes, and edged her way among the men in uniforms when she heard a dialog that made her shudder as the deja-vu feeling was strong. 

"LET ME GO! I DID NOTHING!!!" 

"Do you wish to give up your right to remain silent?" 

"I DID NOTHING! ASK HIM!!!" 

She edged her way between two cops as large as bulls and the show the saw let her mouth agape, making her thinking she was probably in the middle of an absurd nightmare, the type of nightmare she was getting after a drinking-party. 

Blinding spotlights were wiping the scene. On her left, bathed in a cold light, she saw her son... 

_Alive... _  
  
... who was holding against him Katrina, wrapped in a blanket as two nurses were trying to take the two teenagers away with them. 

"Do you wish to give up your right to speak to an attorney and have them present during questioning?" 

"IT'S NOT ME!!!" 

Bulma turned her head on the other side of the scene, and saw... 

... Goten, scarcely held by four policemen who were trying to immobilize him. 

_Goten? _

The deja-vu feeling came back with a vertigo sensation. She got the feeling that all the blood had left her face. _Goten? But what's happening here? _

"We caught the murderer", the voice of a policeman near her answered. She realized at that moment that she had asked the question out loud. 

"But... it's not true...", she mumbled, "it can't be --" 

"TRUNKS!!" 

Goten rushed forwards, ignoring the policemen's efforts to hold him still - what could mere humans do against a semi-Saiyan? - and moved closer to Trunks and Katrina. "I did nothing! It's not me! I SWEAR it!! You know me enough to know I tell the truth, right?!" 

Trunks was remaining still, his complexion pale, and his eyes wide with something inside indicating he had lost connection with reality. Goten seemed to desperate in front of his friend's silence, but before he could move forwards again, one of the policemen hit his back several times with an electric stick. Goten didn't loose consciousness, but felt his legs giving way beneath him and his breathing cut. 

"Everything you'll say might be used against you", the policeman was continuing his litany, reading the Miranda's warning on a piece of paper yellowed by the time and probably the frequent use done with it. 

Goten managed to raise his head towards Trunks before being dragged away. Trunks seemed like marble, but on the edge to loose reason. He wasn't doing anything to help him, he was just remaining still, looking him with wide eyes. 

"I thought... that you were my friend... Why...?", Goten whispered weakly. And the policemen blocked Trunks from Goten's view, preventing him to see the mask of intense despair that had appeared on Trunks' face as a low moan of pain was rising in his throat. One of the policemen, Donnahue, yelled to the others: "BUT TAKE HIM AWAY, GODDAMIT!!! WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!" 

Bulma arrived at that moment near Trunks and Katrina. "Trunks, what's going on? Why Goten--" 

She interrupted herself, seeing Trunks' face expression. The paleness of his skin was making with contrast the blood on his face even more apparent, as well as the terrified and lost look she could read in his eyes. Even Mirai-Trunks had never display such a look in his eyes. At least in the present. It was as if Trunks was hesitating between screaming or bursting into tears. He seemed untouched by the voices around him. 

In the background, the firefighters were entering the building to finish any surviving fire. A car parked in the enclosure of the Capsule Corporation, Hayden and Lee came out of it. 

"Shit! We arrived too late", Lee whispered. 

Seeing that a group of policemen was dragging someone to the police-van, Hayden walked towards them. He couldn't distinguish yet who was the arrested person because of the number of people between the van and him. He saw Donnahue walking towards him. 

"We have something?", he asked with his calm and expressionless voice. 

"Yes", Donnahue answered, apparently out of breath, "We caught the killer. We witnessed him with a cell-phone in his hand, and Trunks and his girl-friend Katrina keeping him in distance with a gun. They are both hurt and will leave to the hospita--" 

"Wait a minit!", Hayden interrupted him, "Are you telling me it's not Trunks the killer?!" 

Before Donnahue could answer, Hayden edged his way among the mass of policemen present as the van was starting. He got a glimpse of Goten, sitting between to armed policemen before the van was too far away. 

"Goten Son?", Lee asked as she was reaching Hayden. 

"Yeah yeah", Hayden answered, frowning, "I remember him well. He was the one who testify in favor to Trunks when Pan Son received a phone-call... The Best Friend..." 

He turned towards the ambulance where Trunks and Katrina where placed, and gazed at the whole scene with a strange look.   
  


  
[ To be continued ]  


*******************************

_Gomen nasaaaaiii for the time it took to update from chapter 10 to 11 ^^;;;_

_I haven't been a lot of ff.net lately... too much work, and an heroic fantasy movie "RUNE" to prepare for January (by the way, if you live in Belgium and in Nortth France, or Luxembourg, and wish to be part of it... Feel free to contact me ^^; )_

_But anyway, Booo-hooo-HOOOOO ;__; I almost didn't get any review for chapter 10... I almost wondered if people still liked the story of not ;___;  
*crycrycrycrycrycrycrycrycrycrycry*_

_Thanx **VegetaGokuLover** and **Eddie** for your reviews ;-)  
_

_I know that YELL 14 has been waiting for long on the Future Trunks Domain, but it was first so huge that I have to cut it in half, and now, the bad thing: the translation into english... (it always eat so much time ;___; )  
But good new: I found my french-english dictionnary again :D  
So, afterall, it should be faster than planned ;-)_

_Hope you liked this chapter, and beginning of next month, I post YELL 12 here ;-) _


	12. The Fifth Call

**_Disclaimer: _**_  
All DBZ characters belong to Akira Toriyama.  
The other ones belong to me :p_

**YELL  
**_" Someone has taken the idea of revenge a little bit too far "_

**Chapitre TWELVE : "The Fifth Call"**

. 

. 

. 

Trunks edged his way through the pipes. He had the feeling that the closer he was to the surface of this dark and cold water, the more there were pipes. His lungs were burning atrociously now. His hands, thrown forward, fell a variation in the texture around them. 

_The air..._

He doubled his efforts to push away the obstacles around him, as he was feeling his hands moving in the free air. An air that should be so soft to breathe.

He startled on his seat and realized he had dozed off inside the ambulance. Through one of the long windows on the vehicle side, he saw that they had just arrived to the Satan City Hospital. He turned towards Katrina and saw that she was gazing at the external lights without any expression on her face. But her breathing was normal.

.

* * * * *

.

**Satan City Police Station - Sunday 23h30**

Hayden could have frankly had a déjà-vu feeling, so strong was the resemblance between the actual scene, and a scene that had occurred in this very office the previous day. To be honest, the circumstances that had brought the young man in this room, and his purple-haired friend, were strangely similar.

But in reality, Hayden didn't seem to pay attention to it. He was gazing at Goten with a doubtful look. Lee, who was sitting in the shadow of a corner of the room, was observing Hayden more than Goten. As for Trunks' previous questioning, the camera was on. It's contents would join dozens of similar tapes that were filling the archives of the Police Station for many years measurable by the probable thickness of dust that had settled softly on cases and plastic boxes.

Hayden raised his eyebrows and took a deep breath: "Let me ask you this, son. What are you doing with a cell-phone with you?". Goten raised an eyebrow towards him, his gaze darkened, his wrists handcuffed in his back. "Hey, wait... Everybody's got one, inspector, live with your time!"

"But what were you doing at Trunks' house at this hour of the night?", Hayden went on.

Goten smiled and leaned forward, his hands still held in his back. "Hey, Hayden, come here...". His tone was almost accomplice. He added on this effect with a slight blink. Hayden leant towards Goten. Lee's attention raised of one level. It was Goten she was gazing at, now.

"How many times...", Goten started on an almost amused tone, before turning it into a voice loaded with anger, "... will I have to REPEAT IT?!!?!!!!"

Hayden got a backwards movement, involuntary. He had already witnessed the strength this youth could deploy. Goten continued on this same bad-tempered tone: "I went to Trunks' house, because the killer called me to tell he was going to kill him!!! GOD DAMN IT, CHECK THE CALLS!!!"

Hayden seemed to recover his cold calm and retorted with an impersonal voice, "We are already on it... But you'll have to stay here until we have confirmation of what you just said..."

Goten's anger seemed to vanish as his shoulders lowered and his tone became desperate and exhausted. "This is crazy. I didn't do anything and you know it!"

Lee raised in her seat. "Hayden, you should ask VITALCOM to track the sent and received calls".

Hayden half-turned to her and roared: "Damn it, I just TOLD YOU!!! The request has ALREADY been sent to them!". Goten was gazing at the two inspectors one after the other. Classical scheme... One plays the baddie and the other plays the nice guy...

Hayden turned then to Goten: "You did go out on friday evening, I remember you..."

Goten raised an eyebrow: "I was at the party with other students. For your information, there must be about fifty people who could testify of my presence there".

Hayden went on: "Did you leave the party at some moment?"

"No." Goten threw an exasperated look towards him, "Inspector, I didn't kill anybody!". He tone has raised a little. "Tell me something..."

Hayden and Lee brought their attention back to Goten. "Don't you think that if I was the killer, I would have got rid of my cell-phone BEFORE going to help my potential victims this evening?"

"Everybody make mistakes", Hayden replied after a short reflection moment.

"No kidding! Not blunder like that!", Goten almost snickered, "I'm not BLOND, hey!".

This weak attempt for humor didn't seem to reach Hayden whose zygomatic muscles remained still. "Blond or not, prepare yourself to spend the night here. We should get the results within a few hours. You have the right to do one phone-call if you want".

Goten scowled, and seemed to think about it for a few moments, then: "Yes, I want to contact my father!"

.

* * * * *

.

**Satan City Hospital - Sunday 23h50.**

**.**

Trunks was sitting in the corridor, on his mother's right. He had a slight Band-Aid on his forehead, another on the back of his neck, and nothing on his cut lips as the cut had been judged too superficial to be healed. The doctors had been optimistic about the quickness of his recovery.

Trunks naturally disliked the hospitals. He was wondering how long nefore they'd realize of their alien heritage. He didn't want to become an observation subject for scientists in lack of sensation and fame. Already, it hadn't been easy to hide their participation to the fights that had marked the history of this planet, but it seemed that since the beginning of this new affair, the risk to be discovered was getting bigger and bigger. He would have greatly preferred a session in a Capsule Corporation regenerating tank. It would have been faster and more discrete. But with the police on the place, he had no other choice than to accept the request _(the order?)_ to go to the hospital to be healed.

Standing up in front of them, was Donnahue, Traxler's second assistant. He had come to question Trunks about the events of the evening, and was waiting to question Katrina as soon as she would come out the treatment room.

Trunks measured the situation. It had a good side, and a series of particularly unpleasant sides. Because if he didn't seem to be considered as the main subject anymore - and he could guess that from Donnahue's professional and caring behavior around him - he had now to face the eventual betrayal of his best friend. He was mentally examining, again, all the events that had marked out their childhood. He couldn't believe that Goten had tried to kill him, and even more, had killed his own brother. And yet... all the proofs were against him...

_But it was Goten, my best friend..._

_But what was he doing there, especially at the same moment as the killer's..._

_But it was still Goten... He wouldn't be a bloody killer... He couldn't turn against my, that's impossible...!_

_But what was he doing at the Capsule Corporation in the middle of the night...?_

Trunks pressed his hands on his temples. Trying in vain to extract a solution from his tortured mind. Bulma put a hand on his shoulder. "Headache, Trunks?"

Trunks shook his head, trying to make a reassuring smile, but ended up doing a grimace. Everything would be better tomorrow. He would see clearer. But right now, all he wanted was to be disconnected of everything for at least ten hours... Not to have to think to anything in particular... A big Fall into forgetfulness...

At that very moment, the door of the treatment room opened, chasing away his crazy thoughts for a few seconds. The doctor who had taken Katrina in 20 minutes before, came out the room, a reassuring smile on his lips. "There's nothing to fear", he said with a warm tone, "No nerve was touched. She got a few stitches to prevent the wound opening again. We can say she was quite lucky!", he added, on an almost admiring tone. "One inch deeper, and it was micro-surgery with loss of 50% of arm mobility..."

Trunks imagined that alternative... What would have become of Katrina in that case. He felt painfully responsible about her. As for Gohan... He once more had the feeling that, this time again, it was his fault.

Then he remembered something Mirai-Trunks had said in his dream.

_'Man, you keep destroying everything you touch, heh?'._

"Yeah, maybe...", he whispered for himself. The doctor was mistaken about his words, and went on "Yes, even if some people worship the progress of micro-surgery, the success is not always guaranteed... Anyway, it's not the case here as she seems to be protected by a damn good lucky star".

"Or a damn good weapon that appeared miraculously", Bulma added, thinking of the gun Katrina had used to defend herself against the killer.

"Where is she?", Trunks asked with an almost worry voice.

"She'll arrive in a minute...", the doctor replied calmly, "Don't worry. She's gathering her items, and she'll join you. Of course, I'd like her to stay here in observation for the night...", he added. Trunks shook his head. He seemed almost disconnected from reality. From where he was, Donnahue was taking his notebook from the pocket of his jacket in order to write down Katrina's statement, when he realized that his pen was dead. "Oh shit! Could I please borrow a pen?", he asked the Doctor with an embarrassed tone. "No problemo... I must bring back Katrina's medical file to the front desk. I guess you would ask for one of their pens..."

The two men went away. Trunks sat on the black and cold plastic seat, nervously exhausted. He thought about the fact that Katrina was going to spend the night in this hospital - apparently protected. He smirked internally: The protection this hospital would provide against a psycho killer was quite weak, but no weaker than the Capsule Corporation, especially since it was clear that the killer knew the place perfectly.

He shook his head. He had just forgotten that the killer had been caught...

_No, it couldn't be real... It ought to have been a nightmare... Goten COULD NOT be the murderer of his own brother... Goten couldn't betray him..._

At that moment, he got another unpleasant feeling... As if a voice deep inside was whispering to him to accept the fact that Goten was the psychopath killer who was after his life... Because if it was not Goten, it meant that the killer was still running free...

_No but are you nuts?! Goten is my best friend! He can't be willing to kill me!_

_Therefore it means that an Anthony Perkins number-one-fan is still wandering freely in the outside world... And who will be the next victim, do you think?_

_Shut up!_, Trunks thought angrily against his internal voice. _I want to sleep! Everything will be better tomorrow!_

At that very moment, his Cell-phone rang, pulling him out of his train of thoughts. He cursed himself. He had completely forgotten to shut it off. Yet, all what had happened was enough to become allergic to this kind of device. Moreover, it was forbidden to have a cell-phone on in a hospital. If nowa nurse a-la-Misery had started rushing towards him with an axe to reprimand him for having gone beyond the rules, he wouldn't have been surprised.

Perplexed, yes, but not surprised...

On this rather funny thought, he answered the call. "Yeah?"

_//Hello, Trunks...//_

Trunks felt his blood freezing in his veins as his heart had just missed a beat.

Bulma who had turned towards him at that moment, saw the sudden paleness on his face, and heard the almost inaudible and despaired whisper: "No..." Her son seemed tetanised on the spot. She understood the situation in the blink of an eye. And after another blink, she reacted, turning towards the doctor and Donnahue who were calmly walking towards the frontdesk, chatting calmly.

"Donnahue!"

And as Trunks was measuring the consequence of this reverse of situation, the horribly familiar voice went on with an amused tone _//Tsk tsk tsk... Poor Goten... Ah, your meaning of "friendship" is beautiful... You can say that an innocent never stood a chance in front of you... Isn't it?//_

_What is he... ?_

"DONNAHUE!"

The sudden emergency in Bulma's voice caught the second assistant's attention. He saw her urgent expression, and then her son's blank expression as he was talking on his cell-phone. His first thought was that the probability it was the killer calling - while he was supposed to be in jail - was too small for the scene he had in front of his eyes to be was what he feared.

**"DONNAHUE!!!!!!!!!!!"**

This last screams finally decided him and he walked rapidly towards Trunks. After a few steps, he was running. 

Beyond the shock and the terror that started to invade him, Trunks got the time to wonder about the meaning of the killer's last sentence. "Who are you?", he whistled between his teeth. The voice went on: _//Oh, you'll discover it soon, trust me. Meanwhile, the SHOW MUST GO ON!//._

Trunks heard the click of end of communication at the very moment Donnahue was grabbing the phone.

"HELLO?!!", the second assistant yelled several times before realizing he was speaking in the void, and that if there had been someone on the other side of the line, that person was already gone a few moments ago... Perhaps gone to butcher other pals of this purple haired boy. At that very moment, Donnahue felt happy not to be part of his circle of friends...

Because to be friend with him could be deadly, in the first meaning of the term...

Trunks fell to his knees, his eyes wide, silent for a few seconds, then let out a scream of rage and despair. Bulma gathered her arms around him to calm him down as, from the corner of her eyes, she could see one of the nurses started a retreating movement, probably to go get an hypodermic tranquilizer. They were probably used to this kind of situation, and their reactions in front of it were proving that those were simple professional reflexes. A little injection to dispatch this nervous patient into Morpheus' arms, and NEXT!

Raising her head, Bulma saw Katrina who was standing in the opening of the treatment room door, not daring crossing it, gazing at Trunks with a look where were mixed fear and distress...

.

.

_**[ To be continued ]**_

_._

_._  


***********************************

**.**

**.**.

_I KNOW... I took a long time to update this fic (while you could still read it on my website, in the profile section... like Judith did ;-) )_

_Those who went on my site, know that the last chapter that was posted there, was #13... And that when I started to post this fic on FF.NET, I told when I'd reach the 13th chapter, the 14th would be posted also a few moments afterwards... So, the waiting is almost reaching the end... The story will go on, and you'll be able to make more investigations :D_

_And at the end of next chapter, just before posting the so long awaited chapter 14, I'll answer all the reviews I got so far ;)_

_Hope you liked this chapter :) Now, tell me, who do you think the killer may be? ;) (warning: there could be hints, hidden in the story, here and there... :p )_

_Have fun ;)_

::Roselyne::


End file.
